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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 · mine · plane · wax · clip · rest · roll · row

  1. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  2. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  5. We're on a ________________ here.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The ________________ took off on time.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  12. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  18. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. roll — a list
  3. mine — for digging
  4. plane — in geometry
  5. roll — on a roll
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. clip — to cut
  9. plane — an aircraft
  10. cold — not warm
  11. rest — a break
  12. wax — to grow
  13. cold — an illness
  14. row — a line
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. rest — what's left
  18. roll — a cake
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. clip — a video
  21. plane — a tool
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. row — to paddle
  24. clip — for paper

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