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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 120 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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  20. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. wave — of the sea
  3. wax — to grow
  4. court — for sport
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. land — ground
  7. cold — not warm
  8. court — of law
  9. land — to come down
  10. wave — a sudden rise
  11. cap — a lid
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — of water
  14. court — of a king
  15. land — a country
  16. wave — with your hand
  17. cap — a hat
  18. cold — an illness
  19. wax — in the ear
  20. cap — of ice
  21. ground — a position
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. ground — crushed
  24. ground — the earth

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