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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. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  20. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. wind — moving air
  3. cap — of ice
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. capital — money
  6. cap — a lid
  7. tube — the underground
  8. wind — moving air
  9. tube — a container
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. field — a subject
  13. pass — to spend time
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. field — for sport
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — an illness
  19. pass — to succeed
  20. pass — a permit
  21. field — farmland
  22. capital — a city
  23. cap — a hat
  24. wax — to grow

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