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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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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: row · bat · straw · scale · prune · pop · spring · wax

  1. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. scale — in music
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. bat — the animal
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. pop — to visit
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. spring — the season
  14. row — to paddle
  15. prune — to trim
  16. prune — to trim
  17. pop — soda
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. scale — size or range
  20. spring — a coil
  21. row — a line
  22. pop — music
  23. spring — of water
  24. wax — to grow

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