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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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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. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  4. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. club — a group
  4. present — there
  5. ground — a position
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. present — the time now
  8. wind — moving air
  9. ground — the earth
  10. ground — crushed
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. wind — moving air
  15. present — a gift
  16. clip — a video
  17. clip — for paper
  18. wound — an injury
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. mine — for digging
  21. club — for dancing
  22. wound — an injury
  23. clip — to cut
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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