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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. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  7. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  21. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  24. We have nothing to ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — for tennis
  2. spring — of water
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. kid — to tease
  5. row — a line
  6. racket — a loud noise
  7. board — a flat piece
  8. wax — to grow
  9. kid — child
  10. hide — to keep secret
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. board — a committee
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. cold — not warm
  15. spring — the season
  16. board — to get on
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. row — to paddle
  19. spring — a coil
  20. wax — for sculpting
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. cold — an illness
  23. hide — animal skin
  24. hide — to keep secret

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