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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: cold · capital · shower · race · wax · chair · ground · lie

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. There's no middle ________________.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. capital — a city
  3. lie — an untruth
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — an illness
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. chair — a leader
  8. race — a contest
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. ground — a position
  11. race — the arms race
  12. cold — not warm
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. shower — to wash
  15. race — humankind
  16. capital — money
  17. lie — to recline
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. ground — the earth
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. shower — rain
  24. wax — to grow

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