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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: row · tear · cold · pop · patient · drill · pitch · wind

  1. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. wind — moving air
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. patient — a sick person
  6. drill — army training
  7. row — a line
  8. pop — music
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. tear — from crying
  11. row — to paddle
  12. wind — moving air
  13. tear — from crying
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. pop — soda
  18. pitch — a sales talk
  19. pitch — completely
  20. drill — a practice
  21. drill — the tool
  22. cold — not warm
  23. patient — calm and waiting
  24. tear — to rip

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