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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: shower · club · net · stick · clip · field · wound · current

  1. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. shower — to wash
  3. club — for dancing
  4. current — of water
  5. field — for sport
  6. club — for golf
  7. stick — to attach or keep to
  8. field — farmland
  9. shower — rain
  10. net — for catching
  11. net — after costs
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. clip — to cut
  14. current — electric
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. clip — for paper
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. net — in sport
  19. clip — a video
  20. club — a group
  21. current — happening now
  22. wound — an injury
  23. wound — an injury
  24. field — a subject

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