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

Word bank: wax · kid · bat · mate · capital · wind

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. capital — money
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. mate — a partner
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. wind — moving air
  8. kid — child
  9. wax — to grow
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. mate — a friend
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. capital — a city
  16. bat — the animal
  17. wind — moving air
  18. mate — to breed

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