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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: race · kid · mine · nail · degree · file · straw · chip

  1. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  9. The ________________ went through the wall.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  24. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — in a computer
  2. kid — child
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. kid — to tease
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. race — humankind
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. nail — for a hammer
  10. degree — from a university
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. file — a line of people
  13. file — a tool
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. race — the arms race
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. race — a contest
  19. degree — temperature
  20. mine — for digging
  21. file — a document
  22. degree — an amount
  23. chip — to eat
  24. chip — for betting

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