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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Have you found your soul ________________?
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. degree — an amount
  3. trunk — of a tree
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. club — a group
  6. clip — to cut
  7. club — for dancing
  8. degree — temperature
  9. mate — a friend
  10. degree — from a university
  11. wax — to grow
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. file — a line of people
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — a video
  17. mate — a partner
  18. mate — to breed
  19. chair — a leader
  20. file — a tool
  21. file — a document
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. wax — in the ear

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