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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: spell · wake · tube · degree · wax · date · cold · prune

  1. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. Have you settled on a ________________?
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. spell — letters
  3. cold — not warm
  4. degree — from a university
  5. tube — the underground
  6. wake — a trail
  7. spell — magic
  8. spell — a short time
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. wax — for sculpting
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. prune — to trim
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. cold — an illness
  17. wax — to grow
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. tube — a container
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. degree — temperature
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. date — the fruit
  24. degree — an amount

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