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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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  18. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  19. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  22. This piece is in a major ________________.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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 music group
  3. cold — an illness
  4. prune — to trim
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. wound — an injury
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. prune — to trim
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. cold — not warm
  11. key — for a lock
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. wave — with your hand
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. band — a ring
  17. wave — of the sea
  18. key — the most important part
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. wave — a sudden rise
  22. key — in music
  23. wound — an injury
  24. band — a rubber band

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