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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. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  18. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. last — to go on
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. season — in sport
  5. clip — a video
  6. last — final
  7. season — of the year
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. clip — for paper
  10. clip — to cut
  11. lean — to rest against
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. file — a tool
  14. kid — to tease
  15. lean — thin
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. root — of a plant
  18. root — of a word
  19. last — finally
  20. root — the cause
  21. file — a line of people
  22. file — a document
  23. kid — child
  24. lean — to bend

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