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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. degree — temperature
  4. rash — hasty
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. kid — to tease
  7. last — final
  8. kid — child
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — not warm
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. wax — to grow
  14. last — finally
  15. degree — an amount
  16. fork — in a road
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. race — humankind
  19. rash — a series
  20. race — a contest
  21. last — to go on
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. race — the arms race
  24. degree — from a university

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