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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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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  23. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. degree — from a university
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. wind — moving air
  7. degree — temperature
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. trunk — of an elephant
  10. tear — to rip
  11. wax — to grow
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. fork — in a road
  14. cold — not warm
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. tear — from crying
  17. wind — moving air
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. fork — a garden tool
  20. cold — an illness
  21. degree — an amount
  22. wax — for sculpting
  23. fork — to eat with
  24. trunk — of a tree

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