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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. file — a line of people
  4. field — farmland
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. march — music
  7. rule — government
  8. prune — to trim
  9. march — the month
  10. rule — to rule out
  11. mine — for digging
  12. wax — to grow
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. prune — to trim
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. rule — a law
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. field — for sport
  20. band — a ring
  21. file — a document
  22. march — the month
  23. field — a subject
  24. band — a music group

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