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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. My father caught me by the ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  7. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  10. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  11. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  12. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. lash — a whip stroke
  3. cold — not warm
  4. arm — part of the body
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. bore — to drill
  8. kid — to tease
  9. bore — to tire
  10. patient — calm and waiting
  11. bore — gave birth
  12. lash — to lash out
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. net — after costs
  15. arm — a part of something
  16. clip — to cut
  17. lash — an eyelash
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. cold — an illness
  21. net — for catching
  22. clip — a video
  23. clip — for paper
  24. net — in sport

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