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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wax · saw · shower · stock · file · clip · march · capital

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. The ________________ market has crashed.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. She's very handy with a ________________.
  19. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. He works in a ________________ mill.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. clip — to cut
  3. capital — a city
  4. march — music
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. file — a document
  7. wax — to grow
  8. shower — rain
  9. clip — for paper
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. march — the month
  12. stock — goods
  13. shower — to wash
  14. march — the month
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. stock — shares
  17. file — a line of people
  18. saw — the tool
  19. wax — for sculpting
  20. capital — money
  21. saw — the tool
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. file — a tool
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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