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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 112 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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: row · wax · shower · file · cold · swing

  1. David sat on the ________________.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. wax — to grow
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. swing — in golf
  6. file — a line of people
  7. row — to paddle
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. file — a tool
  11. row — a line
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. shower — to wash
  16. shower — rain
  17. swing — music
  18. file — a document

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