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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. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. I can't ________________ this cold.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. club — for dancing
  3. wax — to grow
  4. spring — of water
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. spell — letters
  7. tear — to rip
  8. tear — from crying
  9. degree — an amount
  10. spring — a coil
  11. cold — an illness
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. club — a group
  14. spring — the season
  15. cold — not warm
  16. spell — magic
  17. spell — a short time
  18. stand — on your feet
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. tear — from crying
  21. stand — for spectators
  22. degree — from a university
  23. degree — temperature
  24. stand — to bear

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