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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  9. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. It's one o'clock ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. land — to come down
  3. land — ground
  4. clip — to cut
  5. clip — a video
  6. spring — the season
  7. land — a country
  8. bore — to tire
  9. bore — gave birth
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. wax — to grow
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. bore — to drill
  14. clip — for paper
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. wake — a trail
  17. spring — of water
  18. mine — for digging
  19. wax — for sculpting
  20. sharp — clever
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. sharp — exactly
  24. spring — a coil

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