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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  17. Did you ________________ the meat?
  18. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  19. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  20. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. root — of a word
  3. season — in sport
  4. cell — a phone
  5. net — after costs
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. season — of the year
  8. wax — to grow
  9. net — for catching
  10. chair — a leader
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. net — in sport
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cell — in biology
  16. object — to protest
  17. season — to add flavour
  18. root — of a plant
  19. wax — for sculpting
  20. object — an aim
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. object — a thing
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. root — the cause

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