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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. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. spring — of water
  3. lash — a whip stroke
  4. clip — a video
  5. spring — a coil
  6. net — after costs
  7. lash — an eyelash
  8. clip — for paper
  9. race — the arms race
  10. clip — to cut
  11. net — in sport
  12. present — a gift
  13. race — a contest
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. present — the time now
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. lash — to lash out
  18. present — there
  19. wax — in the ear
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. net — for catching
  22. race — humankind
  23. bat — the animal
  24. spring — the season

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