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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: net · spring · race · straw · kick · club · bat · clip

  1. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — humankind
  2. net — for catching
  3. spring — the season
  4. race — the arms race
  5. club — for dancing
  6. net — in sport
  7. spring — of water
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. kick — a thrill
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. clip — a video
  12. kick — in football
  13. bat — the animal
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. spring — a coil
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. club — for golf
  18. net — after costs
  19. clip — for paper
  20. race — a contest
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. clip — to cut
  23. club — a group
  24. straw — dry grass

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