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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 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. The light ________________ burned out.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. I've got to change the light ________________.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. Did you ________________ the meat?
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. bulb — for light
  3. chest — of your body
  4. chest — of your body
  5. bulb — for light
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. chair — a leader
  8. club — a group
  9. clip — a video
  10. degree — an amount
  11. clip — to cut
  12. clip — for paper
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. kid — child
  15. season — to add flavour
  16. degree — temperature
  17. kid — to tease
  18. bulb — of a plant
  19. degree — from a university
  20. chest — a box
  21. season — of the year
  22. club — for dancing
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. season — in sport

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