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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 124 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: court · cold · capital · tear · wax · chest

  1. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. court — of law
  4. capital — a city
  5. tear — from crying
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — a box
  8. wax — to grow
  9. capital — money
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. chest — of your body
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. cold — not warm
  14. court — of a king
  15. wax — for sculpting
  16. court — for sport
  17. cold — an illness
  18. tear — to rip

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