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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bat · net · capital · prune · wax · scale · degree · wound

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. net — after costs
  3. prune — to trim
  4. net — for catching
  5. wax — to grow
  6. prune — to trim
  7. degree — temperature
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. scale — in music
  10. capital — a city
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. degree — from a university
  15. scale — size or range
  16. net — in sport
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. wound — an injury
  19. degree — an amount
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. capital — money
  22. wound — an injury
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. bat — for baseball

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