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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  9. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  20. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. spring — a coil
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. sharp — clever
  8. lie — an untruth
  9. season — in sport
  10. hand — help
  11. degree — temperature
  12. season — of the year
  13. spring — of water
  14. tube — a container
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. spring — the season
  17. wax — to grow
  18. hand — in cards
  19. wax — in the ear
  20. lie — to recline
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. degree — an amount
  24. tube — the underground

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