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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  18. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. current — of water
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. bat — the animal
  6. cold — an illness
  7. last — to go on
  8. current — electric
  9. cold — not warm
  10. last — finally
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. perch — the fish
  14. last — final
  15. wax — to grow
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. wax — in the ear
  18. current — happening now

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