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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  3. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  11. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. Have you found your soul ________________?
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. club — for dancing
  3. pit — in a race
  4. clip — a video
  5. degree — temperature
  6. ball — a great time
  7. mate — to breed
  8. file — a line of people
  9. wound — an injury
  10. ball — a round shape
  11. pit — a hole
  12. ball — a dance
  13. file — a document
  14. pit — a fruit stone
  15. file — a tool
  16. club — a group
  17. mate — a friend
  18. clip — for paper
  19. mate — a partner
  20. wound — an injury
  21. degree — from a university
  22. degree — an amount
  23. clip — to cut
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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