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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. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. The tickets are free of ________________.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. charge — electricity
  3. spring — a coil
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. cold — an illness
  7. spell — magic
  8. branch — of a tree
  9. wound — an injury
  10. charge — a price
  11. branch — a division
  12. charge — in control
  13. spell — a short time
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. spring — the season
  16. wound — an injury
  17. cold — not warm
  18. wax — to grow
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — for paper
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. spell — letters
  23. spring — of water
  24. clip — to cut

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