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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 116 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Have you met the new head ________________?
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  18. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  22. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The King held a masked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. kid — to tease
  3. field — farmland
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. ball — a great time
  6. shower — rain
  7. ruler — a monarch
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. wax — for sculpting
  12. field — for sport
  13. shower — to wash
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. cold — an illness
  16. field — a subject
  17. wax — in the ear
  18. ruler — for measuring
  19. cold — not warm
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. coach — pulled by horses
  22. ruler — for measuring
  23. kid — child
  24. ball — a dance

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