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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 farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. kid — child
  3. kid — to tease
  4. fall — the season
  5. saw — the tool
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. cold — not warm
  9. fall — to drop
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. face — to point toward
  13. trunk — of an elephant
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. face — to confront
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. trunk — of a car
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. face — part of the head
  21. cold — an illness
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. fall — to drop
  24. saw — the tool

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