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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 120 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: pit · wax · cold · field · last · fall · perch · kid

  1. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  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. pit — a fruit stone
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. fall — to drop
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. last — to go on
  6. pit — in a race
  7. perch — the fish
  8. cold — an illness
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. fall — the season
  11. fall — to drop
  12. pit — a hole
  13. last — final
  14. cold — not warm
  15. wax — in the ear
  16. last — finally
  17. field — farmland
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. field — a subject
  20. kid — to tease
  21. kid — child
  22. wax — to grow
  23. field — for sport
  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