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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 116 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: fork · wax · nail · squash · swing · hand · content · cold

  1. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. The ________________ went through the wall.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. David sat on the ________________.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. squash — to crush
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. nail — for a hammer
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. swing — to play on
  8. content — the amount
  9. content — happy
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. swing — in golf
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. hand — in cards
  15. squash — the sport
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. swing — music
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — not warm
  21. fork — in a road
  22. hand — help
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. cold — the Cold War

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