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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 120 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. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. file — a line of people
  3. file — a tool
  4. clip — for paper
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. wax — to grow
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. bat — the animal
  12. kick — in football
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. wind — moving air
  16. file — a document
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. pound — a weight
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. clip — a video
  22. wind — moving air
  23. clip — to cut
  24. kick — with a leg

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