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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 120 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: wax · calf · clip · cell · court · spring · ball · scale

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. calf — of the leg
  4. ball — a great time
  5. court — for sport
  6. clip — a video
  7. wax — to grow
  8. court — of a king
  9. spring — the season
  10. scale — size or range
  11. calf — a young animal
  12. cell — a phone
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. spring — of water
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. clip — for paper
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. spring — a coil
  21. scale — in music
  22. ball — a dance
  23. cell — in biology
  24. clip — to cut

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