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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 120 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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  14. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. wax — to grow
  4. clip — a video
  5. fall — the season
  6. swing — music
  7. hand — help
  8. field — for sport
  9. rush — hurry
  10. swing — to play on
  11. field — farmland
  12. wound — an injury
  13. wax — in the ear
  14. fall — to drop
  15. wound — an injury
  16. fall — to drop
  17. clip — for paper
  18. hand — in cards
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. swing — in golf
  22. rush — to hurry
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. field — a subject

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