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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 120 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: degree · chair · club · clip · band · bat · lie · wake

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  3. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. lie — an untruth
  3. lie — an untruth
  4. club — for golf
  5. band — a music group
  6. clip — for paper
  7. clip — a video
  8. club — for dancing
  9. bat — the animal
  10. wake — to stop sleeping
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. degree — an amount
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. degree — from a university
  15. club — a group
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. degree — temperature
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. clip — to cut
  20. lie — to recline
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. wake — a trail
  23. wake — before a funeral
  24. band — a ring

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