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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  21. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. wax — to grow
  3. jam — to spread on bread
  4. file — a tool
  5. fall — to drop
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. jam — a tight spot
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. degree — temperature
  11. lean — thin
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. file — a document
  14. degree — from a university
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. stem — to come from
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. file — a line of people
  20. jam — in traffic
  21. wax — in the ear
  22. fall — to drop
  23. lean — to bend
  24. fall — the season

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