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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 moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. court — of law
  3. drill — army training
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. bat — the animal
  7. field — farmland
  8. court — of a king
  9. field — a subject
  10. file — a document
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. court — for sport
  13. drill — a practice
  14. file — a tool
  15. drill — the tool
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. racket — for tennis
  19. field — for sport
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. file — a line of people
  22. hand — in cards
  23. racket — a loud noise
  24. hand — help

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