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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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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: degree · cold · stick · cell · wax · straw · saw · last

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  10. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  11. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. last — final
  3. degree — temperature
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. wax — to grow
  7. degree — from a university
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. stick — to attach or keep to
  10. saw — past of 'see'
  11. stick — a piece of wood
  12. cell — in biology
  13. stick — a piece of wood
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. last — finally
  16. cold — an illness
  17. last — to go on
  18. wax — for sculpting
  19. cold — not warm
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. cell — a phone
  23. saw — the tool
  24. saw — the tool

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