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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  17. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  23. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. calf — a young animal
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. tube — the underground
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. tube — a container
  7. cold — not warm
  8. bass — low music
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. patient — calm and waiting
  11. spring — the season
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. field — for sport
  14. spring — of water
  15. wound — an injury
  16. bass — the fish
  17. calf — a young animal
  18. field — farmland
  19. cold — an illness
  20. spring — a coil
  21. field — a subject
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. calf — of the leg
  24. patient — a sick person

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