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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  21. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  22. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  23. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  24. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. last — finally
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. clip — to cut
  10. clip — for paper
  11. last — final
  12. bat — the animal
  13. clip — a video
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. content — the amount
  16. ruler — for measuring
  17. row — a line
  18. last — to go on
  19. row — to paddle
  20. ruler — for measuring
  21. ruler — a monarch
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. fan — to cool the air
  24. patient — calm and waiting

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