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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  11. The ________________ market has crashed.
  12. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. band — a music group
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. wake — a trail
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. stock — goods
  10. bear — the animal
  11. stock — shares
  12. bear — to put up with
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. wax — to grow
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. degree — from a university
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. degree — temperature
  21. bear — the animal
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — not warm
  24. band — a ring

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