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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  13. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. row — a line
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. shower — to wash
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. wound — an injury
  7. cue — a signal
  8. shower — rain
  9. degree — from a university
  10. wax — to grow
  11. degree — temperature
  12. wax — for sculpting
  13. cue — for pool
  14. band — a music group
  15. cue — a hint
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. band — a ring
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. wound — an injury
  20. cold — an illness
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. degree — an amount
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. row — to paddle

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