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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 120 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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. rash — hasty
  3. staff — employees
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. staff — employees
  6. degree — an amount
  7. cold — not warm
  8. dip — to dunk
  9. dip — to sink
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. cap — a lid
  12. cold — an illness
  13. wax — to grow
  14. degree — temperature
  15. dip — a sauce
  16. cap — of ice
  17. degree — from a university
  18. staff — a stick
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. rash — a series
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cap — a hat
  24. shower — rain

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