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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. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. Did you ________________ the button?
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. ball — a great time
  3. press — to push
  4. field — farmland
  5. scale — in music
  6. ball — a dance
  7. wax — to grow
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. file — a document
  11. scale — size or range
  12. row — a line
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. ball — a round shape
  15. press — a publisher
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. wound — an injury
  18. file — a tool
  19. field — a subject
  20. field — for sport
  21. row — to paddle
  22. press — newspapers
  23. wound — an injury
  24. file — a line of people

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