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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  5. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  11. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The ________________ took off on time.
  22. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. cold — not warm
  4. object — a thing
  5. plane — a tool
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. court — for sport
  8. court — of law
  9. court — of a king
  10. object — an aim
  11. patient — calm and waiting
  12. clip — for paper
  13. object — to protest
  14. row — a line
  15. content — happy
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. row — to paddle
  18. content — the amount
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — to cut
  21. plane — an aircraft
  22. plane — in geometry
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. content — videos and posts

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