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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 116 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 met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. race — humankind
  4. fall — to drop
  5. race — a contest
  6. fall — the season
  7. degree — temperature
  8. scale — in music
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. club — for golf
  11. file — a tool
  12. degree — from a university
  13. fall — to drop
  14. race — the arms race
  15. wax — for sculpting
  16. file — a line of people
  17. mine — for digging
  18. scale — size or range
  19. file — a document
  20. degree — an amount
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. club — a group
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. wax — to grow

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