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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 ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  16. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  19. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. The ________________ market has crashed.
  22. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.

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

Answer key

  1. dip — a sauce
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. leaves — lets stay
  4. land — to come down
  5. wax — to grow
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. land — a country
  9. file — a tool
  10. file — a document
  11. kid — child
  12. cold — an illness
  13. kid — to tease
  14. cold — not warm
  15. wax — in the ear
  16. dip — to sink
  17. land — ground
  18. leaves — of a tree
  19. leaves — to go away
  20. stock — goods
  21. stock — shares
  22. wax — for sculpting
  23. file — a line of people
  24. dip — to dunk

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