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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: spring · saw · wax · bark · tear · bat · degree · snap

  1. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. wax — to grow
  3. tear — from crying
  4. bat — the animal
  5. bark — to shout
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. spring — the season
  8. degree — from a university
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. degree — an amount
  11. tear — to rip
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. saw — the tool
  15. degree — temperature
  16. snap — to click
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. saw — the tool
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. spring — of water
  22. tear — from crying
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. spring — a coil

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