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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: rest · wax · field · scale · chair · degree · mine · pitch

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  14. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  22. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. field — farmland
  4. field — for sport
  5. field — a subject
  6. rest — what's left
  7. wax — to grow
  8. rest — what's left
  9. degree — from a university
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. chair — a leader
  12. scale — size or range
  13. pitch — completely
  14. pitch — a sports field
  15. mine — for digging
  16. degree — an amount
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. scale — in music
  19. degree — temperature
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. wax — in the ear
  22. rest — a break
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. scale — for weighing

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