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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bat · march · tear · fall · clip · patient

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. march — the month
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. fall — the season
  5. march — music
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. tear — from crying
  8. clip — to cut
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. fall — to drop
  11. bat — the animal
  12. tear — from crying
  13. clip — a video
  14. fall — to drop
  15. tear — to rip
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. clip — for paper
  18. bat — in an idiom

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