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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: club · march · chair · present · wound · clip · date · wax

  1. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. date — the fruit
  7. clip — to cut
  8. clip — for paper
  9. wound — an injury
  10. club — for golf
  11. clip — a video
  12. club — a group
  13. wax — to grow
  14. march — the month
  15. club — for dancing
  16. wound — an injury
  17. march — music
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. present — a gift
  20. chair — a leader
  21. march — the month
  22. present — there
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. present — the time now

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