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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — a sick person
  2. club — for golf
  3. club — a group
  4. clip — a video
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. bat — the animal
  8. shower — rain
  9. shower — to wash
  10. chest — a box
  11. pit — in a race
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. clip — to cut
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. pit — a fruit stone
  18. club — for dancing
  19. chest — of your body
  20. clip — for paper
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. chest — of your body
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. pit — a hole

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