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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 120 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. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  12. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  13. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  14. The ________________ took off on time.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. I'll be taking the ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. club — a group
  2. clip — for paper
  3. cold — not warm
  4. club — for golf
  5. plane — in geometry
  6. tube — a container
  7. degree — temperature
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. clip — to cut
  10. club — for dancing
  11. foot — a measure
  12. foot — part of the body
  13. tube — in a tire
  14. plane — an aircraft
  15. clip — a video
  16. cold — an illness
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. plane — a tool
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. foot — the bottom
  21. degree — from a university
  22. degree — an amount
  23. tube — the underground
  24. straw — a straw man

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