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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 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. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  16. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  19. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  20. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. patient — a sick person
  2. scale — for weighing
  3. cold — an illness
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. swing — to play on
  6. scale — size or range
  7. swing — in golf
  8. clip — for paper
  9. clip — to cut
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. cold — not warm
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. row — a line
  15. bore — gave birth
  16. patient — calm and waiting
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. bore — to tire
  19. fan — to cool the air
  20. bore — to drill
  21. row — to paddle
  22. scale — in music
  23. swing — music
  24. clip — a video

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