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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: net · ruler · cold · degree · board · wax · mate · file

  1. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  14. Have you found your soul ________________?
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  19. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  20. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The people resisted their cruel ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a committee
  2. degree — an amount
  3. board — to get on
  4. net — after costs
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. board — a flat piece
  7. file — a line of people
  8. mate — to breed
  9. degree — from a university
  10. wax — to grow
  11. file — a tool
  12. cold — an illness
  13. ruler — for measuring
  14. mate — a partner
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — not warm
  17. net — in sport
  18. ruler — for measuring
  19. mate — a friend
  20. wax — in the ear
  21. degree — temperature
  22. net — for catching
  23. file — a document
  24. ruler — a monarch

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