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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 116 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. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  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. spell — magic
  2. wind — moving air
  3. spell — a short time
  4. spell — letters
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. wax — to grow
  10. band — a ring
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. branch — a division
  15. file — a tool
  16. file — a document
  17. wax — in the ear
  18. mine — for digging
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. wind — moving air
  22. band — a music group
  23. bat — the animal
  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