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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. cold — an illness
  3. wax — to grow
  4. club — a group
  5. club — for dancing
  6. cold — not warm
  7. row — to paddle
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. perch — the fish
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. net — for catching
  15. net — in sport
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. kick — a thrill
  18. clip — a video
  19. clip — to cut
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. club — for golf
  22. kick — in football
  23. row — a line
  24. clip — for paper

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