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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. stock — shares
  3. land — ground
  4. cold — not warm
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. degree — from a university
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. degree — an amount
  11. fan — to cool the air
  12. land — a country
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. drill — the tool
  16. wax — to grow
  17. stock — goods
  18. drill — army training
  19. cold — an illness
  20. wax — for sculpting
  21. land — to come down
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. drill — a practice
  24. degree — temperature

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