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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: wind · hand · wax · cold · bark · current · field · track

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. track — a song
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. track — a path
  5. cold — an illness
  6. current — electric
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. bark — to shout
  9. field — farmland
  10. hand — in cards
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. field — a subject
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — moving air
  16. field — for sport
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. current — happening now
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. track — to keep track
  22. hand — help
  23. current — of water
  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