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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. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. last — finally
  4. file — a tool
  5. race — humankind
  6. last — final
  7. race — the arms race
  8. ground — a position
  9. file — a line of people
  10. clip — a video
  11. kid — child
  12. clip — to cut
  13. hand — help
  14. club — for dancing
  15. file — a document
  16. ground — the earth
  17. club — a group
  18. clip — for paper
  19. hand — in cards
  20. race — a contest
  21. kid — to tease
  22. ground — crushed
  23. last — to go on
  24. hand — part of the body

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