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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: bass · mine · tube · clip · snap · club · spring · last

  1. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. last — to go on
  3. tube — a container
  4. snap — to click
  5. tube — the underground
  6. clip — a video
  7. bass — the fish
  8. last — final
  9. mine — for digging
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. spring — of water
  12. club — a group
  13. spring — the season
  14. clip — for paper
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. bass — low music
  19. last — finally
  20. spring — a coil
  21. club — for dancing
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. clip — to cut
  24. mine — an explosive

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