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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. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. spell — magic
  2. cold — not warm
  3. scale — in music
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — an illness
  6. file — a line of people
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. spell — a short time
  9. game — a match
  10. file — a tool
  11. stock — goods
  12. spell — letters
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. stock — shares
  15. wax — for sculpting
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. clip — a video
  18. wax — to grow
  19. scale — size or range
  20. file — a document
  21. clip — for paper
  22. clip — to cut
  23. game — wild animals
  24. stock — a soup base

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