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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. When are we going to ________________?
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  16. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. land — to come down
  3. hand — help
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. bark — to shout
  6. ground — a position
  7. land — ground
  8. wave — with your hand
  9. clip — a video
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. kid — to tease
  12. clip — to cut
  13. kid — child
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. wave — a sudden rise
  17. land — a country
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. ground — the earth
  20. wave — of the sea
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. clip — for paper
  23. hand — in cards
  24. ground — crushed

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