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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 120 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 museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The ________________ took off on time.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. He is an ace ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. clip — for paper
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. shower — rain
  5. plane — in geometry
  6. march — the month
  7. shower — to wash
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. march — music
  12. clip — to cut
  13. clip — a video
  14. plane — an aircraft
  15. perch — the fish
  16. wax — to grow
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. cold — not warm
  19. plane — a tool
  20. pitcher — in baseball
  21. march — the month
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. cold — an illness
  24. pitcher — a jug

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