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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. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  6. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  17. The ________________ went through the wall.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. tear — to rip
  3. club — for golf
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. kick — in football
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. cold — not warm
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. club — a group
  11. field — for sport
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. wind — moving air
  14. field — farmland
  15. tear — from crying
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. cold — an illness
  19. club — for dancing
  20. tear — from crying
  21. wind — moving air
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. field — a subject

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