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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. It's one o'clock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. field — farmland
  3. land — to come down
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. file — a line of people
  6. kid — to tease
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. row — a line
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. wax — to grow
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. file — a document
  13. field — for sport
  14. sharp — clever
  15. kid — child
  16. land — a country
  17. file — a tool
  18. field — a subject
  19. wax — in the ear
  20. stock — goods
  21. row — to paddle
  22. stock — shares
  23. land — ground
  24. sharp — exactly

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