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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. I've got to change the light ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. The light ________________ burned out.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. wax — to grow
  3. bulb — for light
  4. content — happy
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. content — the amount
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. mark — a trace
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. mark — to pay attention
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. bulb — of a plant
  14. band — a music group
  15. bulb — for light
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. degree — temperature
  18. degree — from a university
  19. mark — a grade
  20. cold — an illness
  21. cold — not warm
  22. fork — in a road
  23. degree — an amount
  24. content — videos and posts

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