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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 116 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 cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. The King held a masked ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  21. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. clip — a video
  3. ball — a dance
  4. clip — for paper
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. wind — moving air
  7. prune — to trim
  8. court — of a king
  9. ball — a great time
  10. prune — to trim
  11. court — for sport
  12. ball — a round shape
  13. land — to come down
  14. wind — moving air
  15. land — ground
  16. clip — to cut
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. court — of law
  20. wax — for sculpting
  21. wax — to grow
  22. tear — from crying
  23. tear — to rip
  24. land — a country

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