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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. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. bear — to put up with
  2. clip — for paper
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. sharp — clever
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. face — to confront
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. clip — to cut
  10. clip — a video
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. bear — the animal
  15. game — wild animals
  16. cold — not warm
  17. game — a match
  18. bear — the animal
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. mine — for digging
  23. face — part of the head
  24. face — to point toward

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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