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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  7. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. club — for golf
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. kick — in football
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. stem — of a plant
  7. club — for dancing
  8. file — a line of people
  9. chest — of your body
  10. file — a document
  11. club — a group
  12. scale — in music
  13. field — farmland
  14. field — for sport
  15. spring — the season
  16. stem — to come from
  17. spring — of water
  18. chest — a box
  19. spring — a coil
  20. chest — of your body
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. field — a subject
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. scale — size or range

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