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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: patient · perch · clip · land · mine · racket · band · rule

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  6. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  12. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  13. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  22. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. mine — for digging
  3. clip — a video
  4. clip — for paper
  5. racket — a loud noise
  6. rule — a law
  7. land — ground
  8. perch — the fish
  9. rule — government
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. patient — calm and waiting
  12. rule — to rule out
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. clip — to cut
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. land — a country
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. band — a music group
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. land — to come down

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