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

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. We're on a ________________ here.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  19. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. branch — a division
  4. last — finally
  5. clip — for paper
  6. clip — to cut
  7. row — a line
  8. bowl — a football final
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. roll — on a roll
  11. wax — to grow
  12. rest — what's left
  13. roll — a cake
  14. clip — a video
  15. last — final
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. roll — a list
  18. bowl — to roll
  19. rest — what's left
  20. row — to paddle
  21. last — to go on
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. wax — in the ear

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