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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: fine · wound · spring · wax · hand · rash · straw · clip

  1. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. clip — to cut
  4. rash — hasty
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. rash — on the skin
  9. hand — help
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. rash — a series
  12. wound — an injury
  13. hand — in cards
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. fine — high quality
  16. spring — of water
  17. wound — an injury
  18. spring — the season
  19. clip — a video
  20. wax — to grow
  21. clip — for paper
  22. spring — a coil
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. fine — a penalty

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