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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: prune · patient · field · tear · clip · fan · ground · wax

  1. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. clip — a video
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. wax — to grow
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. field — for sport
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. tear — to rip
  12. field — farmland
  13. ground — crushed
  14. ground — the earth
  15. tear — from crying
  16. prune — to trim
  17. prune — to trim
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. clip — for paper
  21. field — a subject
  22. patient — calm and waiting
  23. clip — to cut
  24. ground — a position

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