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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. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  15. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  16. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — an agreement
  2. rash — hasty
  3. rash — a series
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. clip — a video
  6. trunk — of a tree
  7. cold — not warm
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. bat — the animal
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. deal — to handle
  15. deal — a big deal
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. clip — for paper
  18. clip — to cut
  19. trunk — of a car
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — an illness
  24. bat — in an idiom

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