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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. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. The ________________ took off on time.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  15. My mare is ________________ in color.
  16. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  17. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. court — of law
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. plane — a tool
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. plane — an aircraft
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. spring — a coil
  13. cold — not warm
  14. bay — a part of the sea
  15. bay — a horse colour
  16. bay — to keep at bay
  17. bowl — a football final
  18. court — of a king
  19. cold — an illness
  20. court — for sport
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. spring — of water
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. spring — the season

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