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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 party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  2. The ________________ took off on time.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — a series
  2. plane — an aircraft
  3. tube — the underground
  4. clip — a video
  5. plane — a tool
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. wax — in the ear
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. land — to come down
  10. tube — a container
  11. rash — on the skin
  12. clip — to cut
  13. plane — in geometry
  14. clip — for paper
  15. chip — to eat
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. cold — an illness
  18. wax — to grow
  19. cold — not warm
  20. land — a country
  21. land — ground
  22. chip — for betting
  23. chip — in a computer
  24. rash — hasty

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