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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. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. That must've been a ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  12. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  17. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. court — of a king
  3. face — to confront
  4. cold — not warm
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. cold — an illness
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. rush — a thrill
  9. field — a subject
  10. court — of law
  11. rush — to hurry
  12. wax — to grow
  13. wake — a trail
  14. wax — in the ear
  15. face — part of the head
  16. rush — hurry
  17. wake — before a funeral
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. field — for sport
  20. court — for sport
  21. field — farmland
  22. bat — the animal
  23. face — to point toward
  24. wake — to stop sleeping

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