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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. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  8. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. lean — to bend
  3. land — ground
  4. clip — to cut
  5. degree — an amount
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. pound — for dogs
  8. lean — thin
  9. clip — for paper
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. lean — to rest against
  12. land — a country
  13. file — a line of people
  14. file — a tool
  15. wax — for sculpting
  16. march — the month
  17. clip — a video
  18. degree — from a university
  19. pound — a weight
  20. march — the month
  21. file — a document
  22. land — to come down
  23. degree — temperature
  24. march — music

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