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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: clip · fork · ball · wax · file · sharp · court · cold

  1. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. The King held a masked ________________.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. ball — a round shape
  3. ball — a great time
  4. cold — not warm
  5. clip — to cut
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. wax — in the ear
  8. sharp — clever
  9. court — of law
  10. ball — a dance
  11. court — of a king
  12. court — for sport
  13. file — a document
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. clip — a video
  16. wax — to grow
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. fork — in a road
  19. cold — an illness
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. clip — for paper
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. file — a line of people
  24. file — a tool

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