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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. tube — the underground
  3. club — a group
  4. spell — letters
  5. degree — temperature
  6. clip — for paper
  7. spell — a short time
  8. race — a contest
  9. club — for golf
  10. race — the arms race
  11. file — a tool
  12. degree — an amount
  13. degree — from a university
  14. safe — out of danger
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. clip — to cut
  17. race — humankind
  18. spell — magic
  19. tube — a container
  20. safe — out of danger
  21. file — a line of people
  22. safe — a strongbox
  23. clip — a video
  24. file — a document

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