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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. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  4. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  19. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. root — of a plant
  4. root — of a word
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. fine — a penalty
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. spell — letters
  10. fine — all right
  11. mine — for digging
  12. pit — in a race
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. pit — a fruit stone
  15. wind — moving air
  16. root — the cause
  17. cold — not warm
  18. pit — a hole
  19. wax — to grow
  20. spell — magic
  21. spell — a short time
  22. wind — moving air
  23. cold — an illness
  24. mine — belonging to me

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