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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 moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. cold — not warm
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. file — a tool
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. stem — of a plant
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. stem — to come from
  11. band — a ring
  12. bowl — a football final
  13. capital — a city
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. bowl — to roll
  18. capital — money
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. wax — for sculpting
  21. file — a line of people
  22. wake — a trail
  23. file — a document
  24. band — a music group

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