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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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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: chest · wound · clip · branch · chair · mate · patient · row

  1. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  20. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. clip — to cut
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. patient — a sick person
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. row — a line
  9. wound — an injury
  10. chest — of your body
  11. row — to paddle
  12. chair — a leader
  13. chest — a box
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. mate — a partner
  16. chest — of your body
  17. clip — a video
  18. clip — for paper
  19. patient — calm and waiting
  20. mate — to breed
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. wound — an injury
  24. branch — a division

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