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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: staff · club · bat · clip · cell · hand · spring · wind

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. clip — to cut
  3. spring — of water
  4. staff — a stick
  5. hand — help
  6. wind — moving air
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. cell — a phone
  10. wind — moving air
  11. staff — employees
  12. spring — a coil
  13. staff — employees
  14. cell — in biology
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. hand — in cards
  17. club — for golf
  18. clip — a video
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. bat — the animal
  21. clip — for paper
  22. club — for dancing
  23. club — a group
  24. bat — in an idiom

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