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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  4. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. Did you ________________ the button?
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  23. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. press — a publisher
  4. press — newspapers
  5. field — farmland
  6. patient — calm and waiting
  7. clip — a video
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. field — for sport
  10. wake — a trail
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. press — to push
  13. clip — to cut
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. field — a subject
  16. clip — for paper
  17. rash — a series
  18. wake — to stop sleeping
  19. mine — for digging
  20. rash — hasty
  21. hand — help
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. wake — before a funeral
  24. hand — in cards

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