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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: cold · pitch · scale · content · wax · last · lash · degree

  1. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. last — finally
  4. pitch — completely
  5. degree — from a university
  6. wax — to grow
  7. lash — a whip stroke
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — an illness
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. scale — size or range
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. degree — temperature
  15. content — happy
  16. last — final
  17. lash — to lash out
  18. content — the amount
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. last — to go on
  21. lash — an eyelash
  22. degree — an amount
  23. scale — in music
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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