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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. rock — music
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. cold — an illness
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. rock — a stone
  9. kid — to tease
  10. court — for sport
  11. spell — a short time
  12. board — a flat piece
  13. cold — not warm
  14. spell — letters
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. court — of a king
  17. field — a subject
  18. field — farmland
  19. court — of law
  20. spell — magic
  21. board — to get on
  22. field — for sport
  23. wax — to grow
  24. board — a committee

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