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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 116 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. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The light ________________ burned out.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. bulb — for light
  3. land — to come down
  4. bat — the animal
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. land — ground
  7. file — a tool
  8. bulb — of a plant
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. stock — shares
  13. land — a country
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. file — a line of people
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. file — a document
  19. capital — money
  20. stock — goods
  21. capital — a city
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. bulb — for light
  24. pitcher — a jug

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