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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  16. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. clip — to cut
  3. chest — a box
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. mate — a partner
  6. game — a match
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. stock — goods
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. mate — a friend
  12. clip — a video
  13. chest — of your body
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. chest — of your body
  18. mate — to breed
  19. clip — for paper
  20. stock — shares
  21. game — wild animals
  22. mine — for digging
  23. hand — in cards
  24. mine — belonging to me

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