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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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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 · root · wax · ball · band · perch · wind · clip

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  7. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  17. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  20. The King held a masked ________________.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. clip — to cut
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. wax — to grow
  6. root — of a word
  7. wax — in the ear
  8. cold — not warm
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. clip — for paper
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. perch — the fish
  14. ball — a great time
  15. cold — an illness
  16. ball — a round shape
  17. root — of a plant
  18. band — a music group
  19. root — the cause
  20. ball — a dance
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. wind — moving air
  23. wind — moving air
  24. band — a ring

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