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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. club — for golf
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. file — a document
  5. bat — the animal
  6. club — a group
  7. file — a tool
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. file — a line of people
  10. cold — an illness
  11. fan — to cool the air
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. mine — for digging
  14. cell — a phone
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. cell — in biology
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. stem — to come from
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. cold — not warm
  24. club — for dancing

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