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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: face · mine · hand · wax · saw · content · wound · land

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. She's very handy with a ________________.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. content — happy
  3. saw — past of 'see'
  4. wound — an injury
  5. hand — in cards
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. saw — the tool
  11. saw — the tool
  12. hand — help
  13. land — ground
  14. wound — an injury
  15. wax — to grow
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. mine — for digging
  19. land — to come down
  20. face — to confront
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. land — a country
  23. face — to point toward
  24. face — part of the head

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