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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. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  5. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  24. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. present — the time now
  3. wax — to grow
  4. mouse — the animal
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. clip — for paper
  7. file — a tool
  8. mouse — for a computer
  9. clip — to cut
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. present — a gift
  12. land — a country
  13. cold — not warm
  14. file — a document
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. cold — an illness
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. land — ground
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. clip — a video
  21. land — to come down
  22. file — a line of people
  23. present — there
  24. wax — for sculpting

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