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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. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  12. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  13. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  14. Did you ________________ the button?
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  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. bass — low music
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. court — of a king
  4. land — ground
  5. lash — an eyelash
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. march — music
  8. clip — a video
  9. march — the month
  10. march — the month
  11. press — a publisher
  12. wax — for sculpting
  13. lash — to lash out
  14. press — to push
  15. court — for sport
  16. bass — the fish
  17. court — of law
  18. clip — for paper
  19. press — newspapers
  20. lash — a whip stroke
  21. clip — to cut
  22. land — to come down
  23. wax — to grow
  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