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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: chip · bowl · land · cold · wax · chest · current · vault

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  6. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  17. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  22. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  23. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. chest — a box
  4. land — ground
  5. vault — a safe
  6. vault — an arched ceiling
  7. land — a country
  8. chip — to eat
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. vault — in gymnastics
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. current — of water
  15. chest — of your body
  16. chip — for betting
  17. bowl — a football final
  18. chip — in a computer
  19. land — to come down
  20. cold — not warm
  21. wax — to grow
  22. current — happening now
  23. current — electric
  24. cold — an illness

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