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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  4. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  5. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. clip — for paper
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. board — a flat piece
  5. board — a committee
  6. cold — not warm
  7. squash — the sport
  8. swing — to play on
  9. file — a document
  10. tear — from crying
  11. file — a line of people
  12. squash — to crush
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. board — to get on
  15. tear — from crying
  16. swing — in golf
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. file — a tool
  20. swing — music
  21. clip — to cut
  22. cold — an illness
  23. tear — to rip
  24. clip — a video

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