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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. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. wax — to grow
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. ground — crushed
  6. ball — a dance
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. ground — a position
  9. ball — a great time
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. current — of water
  13. capital — a city
  14. current — electric
  15. cold — not warm
  16. bat — the animal
  17. cold — an illness
  18. ball — a round shape
  19. ground — the earth
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. current — happening now
  23. band — a music group
  24. band — a ring

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