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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 116 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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. track — a song
  3. track — to keep track
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. cell — a phone
  7. dip — to sink
  8. spring — of water
  9. degree — an amount
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. wax — for sculpting
  12. degree — temperature
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. spring — the season
  15. wax — to grow
  16. hand — in cards
  17. dip — a sauce
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. pound — to hit hard
  20. hand — help
  21. track — a path
  22. degree — from a university
  23. pound — a weight
  24. cell — in biology

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