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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. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. He works in a ________________ mill.
  4. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The King held a masked ________________.
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  22. The ________________ went through the wall.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. cold — an illness
  3. saw — the tool
  4. nail — on a finger
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. clip — a video
  7. ball — a dance
  8. saw — the tool
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. bat — the animal
  12. ball — a great time
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. cold — not warm
  15. wax — for sculpting
  16. rash — hasty
  17. wax — to grow
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. clip — to cut
  20. clip — for paper
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. rash — a series
  24. ball — a round shape

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