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

Word bank: cold · clip · chest · shower · tear · patient

  1. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — a sick person
  2. chest — of your body
  3. clip — to cut
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. chest — of your body
  6. shower — rain
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. shower — to wash
  9. tear — from crying
  10. clip — for paper
  11. chest — a box
  12. clip — a video
  13. tear — to rip
  14. cold — an illness
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. tear — from crying
  18. cold — not warm

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