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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: kid · track · hand · wax · race · clip · pound · wound

  1. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  9. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. hand — in cards
  3. pound — a weight
  4. track — a song
  5. clip — a video
  6. race — humankind
  7. wound — an injury
  8. track — a path
  9. pound — for dogs
  10. race — a contest
  11. kid — child
  12. wax — for sculpting
  13. wound — an injury
  14. track — to keep track
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. race — the arms race
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. clip — for paper
  20. hand — help
  21. clip — to cut
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. kid — to tease
  24. wax — to grow

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