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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: capital · court · root · cold · rest · scale · spell · wax

  1. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  21. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  22. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. rest — a break
  3. spell — letters
  4. scale — size or range
  5. wax — to grow
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. scale — in music
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. court — for sport
  10. rest — what's left
  11. capital — money
  12. court — of a king
  13. spell — a short time
  14. cold — an illness
  15. capital — a city
  16. cold — not warm
  17. root — the cause
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. spell — magic
  20. root — of a plant
  21. rest — what's left
  22. root — of a word
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. court — of law

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