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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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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: club · tube · cold · wax · march · ball · wound · mug

  1. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. Where did you ________________ them?
  4. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. The King held a masked ________________.
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  18. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  19. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. tube — the underground
  3. mug — to rob
  4. mug — a face
  5. cold — not warm
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. march — the month
  8. ball — a dance
  9. club — for dancing
  10. march — music
  11. wound — an injury
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. ball — a round shape
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. mug — a cup
  18. wax — for sculpting
  19. ball — a great time
  20. march — the month
  21. wound — an injury
  22. club — a group
  23. wax — to grow
  24. tube — a container

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