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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. The ________________ market has crashed.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  9. Did you ________________ the button?
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. hand — in cards
  4. kid — to tease
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. net — in sport
  7. clip — to cut
  8. press — newspapers
  9. press — to push
  10. net — after costs
  11. wax — to grow
  12. press — a publisher
  13. hand — help
  14. stock — goods
  15. face — part of the head
  16. face — to confront
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. net — for catching
  19. face — to point toward
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. kid — child
  23. clip — a video
  24. clip — for paper

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