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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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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: hand · nail · race · cold · clip · bank · wax · scale

  1. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The ________________ went through the wall.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  14. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  20. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. scale — for weighing
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. race — a contest
  5. clip — to cut
  6. bank — for money
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. nail — for a hammer
  10. race — the arms race
  11. scale — size or range
  12. race — humankind
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. wax — in the ear
  15. clip — for paper
  16. hand — help
  17. hand — in cards
  18. clip — a video
  19. nail — on a finger
  20. bank — of a river
  21. cold — an illness
  22. bank — for money
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. scale — in music

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