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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: pitch · rock · mate · wax · degree · wound · cold · jam

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The players ran onto the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. rock — to move gently
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. jam — to spread on bread
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. jam — in traffic
  7. mate — to breed
  8. mate — a friend
  9. rock — a stone
  10. mate — a partner
  11. degree — temperature
  12. cold — not warm
  13. jam — a tight spot
  14. wound — an injury
  15. cold — an illness
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. wax — to grow
  18. degree — an amount
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. wound — an injury
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. pitch — completely
  23. degree — from a university
  24. pitch — a sports field

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