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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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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 · stick · degree · wind · wound · cold · perch · wax

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  8. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  17. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  20. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. wax — to grow
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. cold — an illness
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. wound — an injury
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. stick — to attach or keep to
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. degree — temperature
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. wax — for sculpting
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. cold — not warm
  15. wind — moving air
  16. perch — the fish
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. stick — a piece of wood
  20. fan — to cool the air
  21. degree — from a university
  22. degree — an amount
  23. wind — moving air
  24. wound — an injury

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