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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: date · club · clip · drill · straw · bat · spring · net

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. spring — a coil
  3. club — for golf
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. drill — a practice
  6. date — the fruit
  7. clip — to cut
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. drill — the tool
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. spring — of water
  13. net — in sport
  14. spring — the season
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. club — a group
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. bat — the animal
  20. club — for dancing
  21. net — for catching
  22. clip — for paper
  23. drill — army training
  24. net — after costs

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