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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. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  14. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  15. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. The King held a masked ________________.
  22. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  23. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  24. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. clip — to cut
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. hide — animal skin
  6. clip — for paper
  7. hand — in cards
  8. bass — the fish
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. field — a subject
  11. field — for sport
  12. field — farmland
  13. hide — to keep secret
  14. ball — a round shape
  15. pitch — a sports field
  16. pitch — completely
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. bass — the instrument
  19. clip — a video
  20. hand — help
  21. ball — a dance
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. ball — a great time
  24. bass — low music

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