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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: bat · bay · row · face · wind · chest · wax · root

  1. My mare is ________________ in color.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. bay — a horse colour
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. face — part of the head
  4. face — to point toward
  5. wind — moving air
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — a box
  8. wind — moving air
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. wax — to grow
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. root — of a plant
  15. chest — of your body
  16. bat — the animal
  17. row — to paddle
  18. root — the cause
  19. root — of a word
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. bay — to keep at bay
  22. row — a line
  23. bay — a part of the sea
  24. face — to confront

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