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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. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  8. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  19. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. That must've been a ________________.
  23. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  24. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. fine — all right
  3. degree — an amount
  4. cold — an illness
  5. cell — a phone
  6. degree — temperature
  7. mark — to pay attention
  8. wax — in the ear
  9. wax — to grow
  10. kid — child
  11. rush — hurry
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. kid — to tease
  15. cold — not warm
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. fine — high quality
  19. mark — a grade
  20. cell — in biology
  21. degree — from a university
  22. rush — a thrill
  23. fine — a penalty
  24. mark — a trace

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