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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. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. drill — the tool
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. march — the month
  5. drill — army training
  6. degree — temperature
  7. kid — to tease
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. wax — to grow
  11. drill — a practice
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. cold — not warm
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. degree — from a university
  18. deal — a big deal
  19. bat — the animal
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. degree — an amount
  22. deal — to handle
  23. march — the month
  24. kid — child

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