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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 hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  21. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  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. spring — of water
  2. scale — in music
  3. present — a gift
  4. spring — a coil
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. wind — moving air
  8. swing — to play on
  9. wax — to grow
  10. present — the time now
  11. swing — in golf
  12. tear — from crying
  13. clip — to cut
  14. spring — the season
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. scale — size or range
  17. tear — from crying
  18. wind — moving air
  19. clip — for paper
  20. present — there
  21. wax — for sculpting
  22. swing — music
  23. tear — to rip
  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