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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. clip — for paper
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. file — a tool
  5. clip — to cut
  6. degree — from a university
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. deal — a big deal
  9. file — a document
  10. file — a line of people
  11. wax — to grow
  12. degree — temperature
  13. clip — a video
  14. deal — an agreement
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. cell — in biology
  17. degree — an amount
  18. deal — to handle

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