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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.

Make a worksheet

Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · file · mine · arm · tube · wax · fan · clip

  1. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. My father caught me by the ________________.
  22. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. wax — to grow
  3. cold — an illness
  4. arm — part of the body
  5. mine — for digging
  6. arm — a part of something
  7. clip — for paper
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. file — a line of people
  11. clip — to cut
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. clip — a video
  15. cold — not warm
  16. file — a document
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. tube — the underground
  19. file — a tool
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. tube — a container

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