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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: chair · swing · cold · track · wax · kid · snap · plane

  1. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. The ________________ took off on time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. kid — to tease
  3. swing — in golf
  4. plane — an aircraft
  5. cold — an illness
  6. kid — child
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. wax — in the ear
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. swing — music
  11. track — a song
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. wax — to grow
  14. track — a path
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. cold — not warm
  17. chair — a leader
  18. swing — to play on
  19. plane — a tool
  20. track — to keep track
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. plane — in geometry
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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