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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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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: safe · club · cell · clip · cue · cold · kick · scale

  1. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  2. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  9. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  24. He has no idea where the ________________ is.

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

Answer key

  1. safe — out of danger
  2. cue — a hint
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. scale — size or range
  6. clip — a video
  7. clip — to cut
  8. kick — in football
  9. safe — out of danger
  10. club — for dancing
  11. club — for golf
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cell — a phone
  15. club — a group
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. clip — for paper
  19. cue — for pool
  20. scale — in music
  21. cell — in biology
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cue — a signal
  24. safe — a strongbox

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