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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 120 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: fan · field · wax · straw · wake · spring · degree · face

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. face — part of the head
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. field — farmland
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. degree — temperature
  11. field — a subject
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — of water
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. spring — a coil
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. face — to confront
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. degree — from a university
  20. wake — a trail
  21. field — for sport
  22. degree — an amount
  23. face — to point toward
  24. wax — to grow

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