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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: chair · tube · tear · cold · march · wax · wound · ball

  1. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. tear — from crying
  5. wound — an injury
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. chair — a leader
  9. ball — a dance
  10. march — the month
  11. ball — a great time
  12. march — music
  13. tube — a container
  14. tube — the underground
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. wound — an injury
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. tear — from crying
  21. tear — to rip
  22. march — the month
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. ball — a round shape

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