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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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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  18. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. He has no idea where the ________________ is.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. field — farmland
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. tube — a container
  7. wave — with your hand
  8. cold — an illness
  9. tube — the underground
  10. wax — to grow
  11. cold — not warm
  12. safe — out of danger
  13. field — a subject
  14. bowl — to roll
  15. file — a document
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. safe — out of danger
  18. wave — of the sea
  19. file — a line of people
  20. file — a tool
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. wave — a sudden rise
  23. field — for sport
  24. safe — a strongbox

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