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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  4. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. court — of a king
  3. scale — size or range
  4. calf — a young animal
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. land — ground
  7. kid — to tease
  8. wax — to grow
  9. calf — of the leg
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. file — a tool
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. land — a country
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. file — a document
  16. file — a line of people
  17. wax — in the ear
  18. kid — child
  19. scale — in music
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. court — of law
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. land — to come down
  24. court — for sport

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