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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. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. clip — to cut
  3. ball — a great time
  4. shower — to wash
  5. file — a tool
  6. clip — for paper
  7. file — a line of people
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. shower — rain
  13. wax — to grow
  14. kick — in football
  15. kick — with a leg
  16. wound — an injury
  17. kick — a thrill
  18. ball — a dance
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. bat — the animal
  21. wound — an injury
  22. file — a document
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. clip — a video

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