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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 124 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. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  6. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. craft — a skill
  4. band — a ring
  5. craft — boats
  6. craft — a handicraft
  7. bark — to shout
  8. wound — an injury
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. band — a music group
  11. perch — the fish
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. degree — an amount
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. degree — from a university
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. degree — temperature
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. mine — for digging
  24. wound — an injury

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