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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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  4. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  5. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  9. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  14. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. fan — to cool the air
  4. fine — high quality
  5. fine — a penalty
  6. wax — to grow
  7. last — finally
  8. fine — all right
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. ground — crushed
  11. shower — rain
  12. rock — a stone
  13. wax — in the ear
  14. last — final
  15. ground — a position
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cold — an illness
  18. wax — for sculpting
  19. shower — to wash
  20. last — to go on
  21. rock — to move gently
  22. cold — not warm
  23. ground — the earth
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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