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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 museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  24. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. tear — from crying
  3. pound — a weight
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. wax — to grow
  6. pitch — completely
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. tube — a container
  9. field — a subject
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. cold — not warm
  12. field — farmland
  13. pitch — a sales talk
  14. field — for sport
  15. bat — the animal
  16. tear — to rip
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. tube — the underground
  20. pound — to hit hard
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — an illness
  23. tear — from crying
  24. pound — for dogs

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