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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. bear — the animal
  6. tear — from crying
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. mate — a friend
  10. tear — to rip
  11. mate — a partner
  12. degree — an amount
  13. wax — to grow
  14. bear — the animal
  15. degree — from a university
  16. tear — from crying
  17. bear — to put up with
  18. cell — a phone
  19. content — happy
  20. cell — in biology
  21. mate — to breed
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. cold — an illness
  24. degree — temperature

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