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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  8. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cold — not warm
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. cold — an illness
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. arm — a part of something
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. saw — the tool
  12. saw — the tool
  13. clip — to cut
  14. wax — to grow
  15. drill — a practice
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. band — a ring
  18. calf — of the leg
  19. band — a music group
  20. clip — for paper
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. drill — army training
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. drill — the tool

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