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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 124 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  15. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  16. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  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. kid — to tease
  2. clip — a video
  3. hand — in cards
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. hand — help
  6. trunk — of a car
  7. field — for sport
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. trunk — of a tree
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. field — farmland
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. wound — an injury
  14. trunk — of an elephant
  15. dip — a sauce
  16. dip — to sink
  17. kid — child
  18. wound — an injury
  19. clip — to cut
  20. dip — to dunk
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. clip — for paper
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  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