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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. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — a sick person
  2. bass — low music
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. kid — child
  5. hand — in cards
  6. perch — the fish
  7. cold — not warm
  8. hand — help
  9. patient — calm and waiting
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. land — to come down
  13. land — a country
  14. land — ground
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. kid — to tease
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. bat — the animal
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. bass — the fish
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. cold — an illness

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