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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. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The King held a masked ________________.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  8. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  15. You don't need to ________________ round.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. calf — of the leg
  2. cold — not warm
  3. ball — a dance
  4. pop — music
  5. wax — to grow
  6. content — happy
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. wax — in the ear
  9. march — music
  10. clip — for paper
  11. wax — for sculpting
  12. clip — a video
  13. cold — an illness
  14. ball — a round shape
  15. pop — to visit
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. content — the amount
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. clip — to cut
  20. pop — soda
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. ball — a great time
  23. march — the month
  24. march — the month

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