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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: game · tube · ground · wax · cap · degree · wind · hand

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. tube — the underground
  3. cap — of ice
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. tube — a container
  7. game — wild animals
  8. ground — a position
  9. hand — help
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. cap — a hat
  12. degree — from a university
  13. ground — crushed
  14. wind — moving air
  15. ground — the earth
  16. wax — to grow
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. wind — moving air
  19. hand — in cards
  20. degree — temperature
  21. wax — in the ear
  22. game — a match
  23. cap — a lid
  24. tube — in a tire

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