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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: court · snap · shower · wax · bat · trunk · wind · fall

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. fall — to drop
  4. snap — to click
  5. wax — to grow
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. court — of law
  8. shower — rain
  9. wind — moving air
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. wind — moving air
  14. fall — the season
  15. fall — to drop
  16. court — for sport
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. court — of a king
  19. shower — to wash
  20. trunk — of a tree
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. snap — to speak sharply

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com