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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: ball · wax · file · bass · field · cell · cold · wind

  1. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The King held a masked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. cold — an illness
  3. wind — moving air
  4. wind — moving air
  5. file — a line of people
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. bass — the fish
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. ball — a great time
  10. wax — to grow
  11. file — a document
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. field — farmland
  15. file — a tool
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. field — a subject
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. cell — in biology
  20. cell — a phone
  21. field — for sport
  22. bass — low music
  23. cold — not warm
  24. ball — a dance

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