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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. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  2. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. David sat on the ________________.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — a big deal
  2. swing — music
  3. wax — to grow
  4. file — a tool
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. swing — to play on
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. degree — temperature
  9. deal — to handle
  10. degree — from a university
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. file — a document
  13. file — a line of people
  14. mine — for digging
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. degree — an amount
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. shower — to wash
  20. pound — a weight
  21. shower — rain
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. swing — in golf
  24. deal — an agreement

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