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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. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. That was ________________ to happen.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  24. He took the fish out of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — tied together
  2. net — after costs
  3. current — happening now
  4. hand — in cards
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. current — electric
  7. clip — for paper
  8. dip — a sauce
  9. net — in sport
  10. clip — a video
  11. bound — certain
  12. kid — child
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. kid — to tease
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. hand — help
  17. current — of water
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. dip — to dunk
  20. dip — to sink
  21. clip — to cut
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. bound — obliged
  24. net — for catching

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