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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. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  9. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  13. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  22. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. race — a contest
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. field — a subject
  5. clip — for paper
  6. cold — an illness
  7. clip — to cut
  8. wax — in the ear
  9. pass — to succeed
  10. clip — a video
  11. cold — not warm
  12. wax — to grow
  13. pass — a permit
  14. hand — in cards
  15. field — farmland
  16. drill — a practice
  17. race — the arms race
  18. drill — army training
  19. hand — help
  20. race — humankind
  21. pass — to spend time
  22. wax — for sculpting
  23. field — for sport
  24. cold — the Cold War

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