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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. Spring is a pleasant ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. stem — of a plant
  3. kid — to tease
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. tear — from crying
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. tear — to rip
  8. clip — a video
  9. season — in sport
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. ruler — for measuring
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. wax — to grow
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. ruler — for measuring
  16. bat — the animal
  17. ruler — a monarch
  18. clip — for paper
  19. tear — from crying
  20. stem — to come from
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. clip — to cut
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. season — of the year

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