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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 120 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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Word bank
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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: last · chest · wax · pitcher · sharp · cell · straw · spell

  1. He is an ace ________________.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — in baseball
  2. spell — letters
  3. cell — a phone
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. chest — a box
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. last — final
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. last — to go on
  11. wax — to grow
  12. cell — in biology
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. last — finally
  17. sharp — clever
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. spell — a short time
  20. spell — magic
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. chest — of your body
  23. chest — of your body
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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