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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: pop · club · cold · tube · field · stock · file · staff

  1. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  5. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. The ________________ market has crashed.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. club — a group
  2. field — farmland
  3. club — for golf
  4. staff — employees
  5. pop — music
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. tube — a container
  9. stock — shares
  10. file — a document
  11. cold — an illness
  12. cold — not warm
  13. club — for dancing
  14. pop — to visit
  15. file — a line of people
  16. field — for sport
  17. file — a tool
  18. staff — a stick
  19. tube — the underground
  20. pop — soda
  21. staff — employees
  22. field — a subject
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. stock — goods

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