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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: spring · band · wax · cold · dip · arm · spell · clip

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  9. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. My father caught me by the ________________.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. spring — of water
  3. dip — to dunk
  4. spell — letters
  5. cold — an illness
  6. clip — a video
  7. spell — a short time
  8. wax — in the ear
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. band — a music group
  11. clip — for paper
  12. arm — a part of something
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. wax — to grow
  16. spring — a coil
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. cold — not warm
  20. band — a ring
  21. spell — magic
  22. dip — to sink
  23. arm — part of the body
  24. spring — the season

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