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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. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  4. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  7. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  19. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  23. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. cold — not warm
  3. pit — in a race
  4. cap — a lid
  5. net — in sport
  6. cap — a hat
  7. cap — of ice
  8. net — for catching
  9. net — after costs
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. row — a line
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. cold — an illness
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. row — to paddle
  18. pit — a fruit stone
  19. wax — to grow
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. ground — a position
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. pit — a hole
  24. ground — the earth

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