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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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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: club · fork · kid · pound · coach · clip · bat · plane

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  12. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  13. The ________________ took off on time.
  14. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  20. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  23. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. kid — child
  3. club — for dancing
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. fork — to eat with
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. plane — a tool
  10. kid — to tease
  11. pound — a weight
  12. pound — to hit hard
  13. plane — an aircraft
  14. club — a group
  15. clip — a video
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. clip — for paper
  18. clip — to cut
  19. plane — in geometry
  20. club — for golf
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. pound — for dogs
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. fork — in a road

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