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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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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: mine · wax · coach · field · snap · date · game · ground

  1. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. Have you settled on a ________________?
  20. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. snap — to click
  3. coach — pulled by horses
  4. ground — a position
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. field — for sport
  7. field — farmland
  8. wax — to grow
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. ground — crushed
  11. game — a match
  12. field — a subject
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. mine — for digging
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. date — the fruit
  21. ground — the earth
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. game — wild animals
  24. coach — a trainer

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