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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: perch · patient · clip · foot · field · cold · stand · tear

  1. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. I can't ________________ this cold.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  12. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  21. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  22. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. tear — from crying
  3. stand — to bear
  4. clip — for paper
  5. foot — a measure
  6. field — farmland
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — not warm
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. field — a subject
  11. stand — on your feet
  12. foot — part of the body
  13. cold — an illness
  14. field — for sport
  15. tear — to rip
  16. foot — the bottom
  17. tear — from crying
  18. clip — to cut
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. stand — for spectators
  22. patient — calm and waiting
  23. clip — a video
  24. perch — the fish

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