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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: tear · kid · wake · cell · track · bound · wax · scale

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  9. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  12. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. cell — a phone
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. bound — certain
  5. wake — a trail
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. track — to keep track
  9. bound — obliged
  10. tear — from crying
  11. bound — tied together
  12. wax — to grow
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. tear — from crying
  15. tear — to rip
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. scale — size or range
  19. track — a song
  20. track — a path
  21. cell — in biology
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. scale — in music
  24. kid — child

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