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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: drill · degree · wax · game · chest · land · kid · net

  1. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. net — for catching
  2. kid — to tease
  3. net — after costs
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. game — a match
  6. degree — from a university
  7. drill — army training
  8. drill — the tool
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. degree — an amount
  12. chest — a box
  13. land — ground
  14. degree — temperature
  15. drill — a practice
  16. wax — to grow
  17. chest — of your body
  18. land — to come down
  19. net — in sport
  20. chest — of your body
  21. game — wild animals
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. kid — child
  24. land — a country

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