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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 who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  12. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  23. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  24. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. clip — for paper
  3. field — farmland
  4. degree — an amount
  5. fall — to drop
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. lash — to lash out
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. degree — from a university
  11. lash — a whip stroke
  12. trunk — of a tree
  13. clip — a video
  14. wax — in the ear
  15. fall — the season
  16. chip — to eat
  17. field — for sport
  18. degree — temperature
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. field — a subject
  21. clip — to cut
  22. wax — to grow
  23. lash — an eyelash
  24. chip — for betting

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