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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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Word bank
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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: clip · straw · pop · staff · row · shower · patient · field

  1. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  5. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. patient — calm and waiting
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. staff — a stick
  5. patient — a sick person
  6. field — for sport
  7. pop — soda
  8. pop — to visit
  9. shower — rain
  10. staff — employees
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. field — farmland
  14. row — to paddle
  15. clip — a video
  16. shower — to wash
  17. field — a subject
  18. pop — music
  19. row — a line
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. clip — for paper
  23. staff — employees
  24. clip — to cut

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