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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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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 · capital · wax · cold · coach · root · file · tear

  1. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. Have you met the new head ________________?
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  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. wax — to grow
  2. root — of a word
  3. wind — moving air
  4. tear — from crying
  5. file — a line of people
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. capital — a city
  8. wax — in the ear
  9. tear — to rip
  10. cold — not warm
  11. coach — pulled by horses
  12. file — a tool
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. tear — from crying
  15. root — the cause
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. capital — money
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. root — of a plant
  20. wind — moving air
  21. file — a document
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. coach — a trainer
  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