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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. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  2. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  3. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. My father caught me by the ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  19. Have you settled on a ________________?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. patient — calm and waiting
  3. arm — a part of something
  4. chair — a leader
  5. clip — for paper
  6. saw — the tool
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. saw — the tool
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. cold — not warm
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. row — a line
  16. clip — to cut
  17. date — the fruit
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. cold — an illness
  21. row — to paddle
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. clip — a video
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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