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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 ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  2. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  20. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. root — of a word
  2. mark — to pay attention
  3. club — for golf
  4. scale — size or range
  5. kid — to tease
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. club — for dancing
  9. track — to keep track
  10. wax — to grow
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. wax — for sculpting
  13. bat — the animal
  14. club — a group
  15. root — the cause
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. mark — a trace
  18. kid — child
  19. track — a song
  20. root — of a plant
  21. track — a path
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. mark — a grade
  24. scale — in music

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