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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: cold · wax · roll · pitcher · clip · track · bulb · season

  1. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  4. The light ________________ burned out.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  8. Did you ________________ the meat?
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  15. I've got to change the light ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. We're on a ________________ here.
  21. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. clip — for paper
  3. track — a song
  4. bulb — for light
  5. clip — a video
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. roll — a list
  8. season — to add flavour
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. track — to keep track
  11. roll — a cake
  12. track — a path
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. season — in sport
  15. bulb — for light
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. cold — not warm
  20. roll — on a roll
  21. bulb — of a plant
  22. clip — to cut
  23. wax — to grow
  24. pitcher — a jug

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