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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. Have you settled on a ________________?
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. wax — to grow
  4. clip — a video
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. vault — in gymnastics
  8. clip — to cut
  9. file — a tool
  10. date — the fruit
  11. kid — child
  12. row — a line
  13. mine — for digging
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. kid — to tease
  17. vault — a safe
  18. row — to paddle
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. file — a document
  21. clip — for paper
  22. vault — an arched ceiling
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. file — a line of people

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