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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 116 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 farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  2. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. lie — to recline
  3. capital — money
  4. cold — an illness
  5. patient — a sick person
  6. wound — an injury
  7. lie — an untruth
  8. cold — not warm
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. wound — an injury
  11. tube — a container
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. tube — in a tire
  14. capital — a city
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. mine — for digging
  17. shower — rain
  18. lie — an untruth
  19. tube — the underground
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. shower — to wash

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