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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: ball · cold · band · patient · bark · bear · bat · snap

  1. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  8. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  11. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. bark — to shout
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. bear — the animal
  8. bear — to put up with
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. snap — to snap out of it
  12. snap — to click
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. cold — an illness
  15. band — a ring
  16. cold — not warm
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. ball — a great time
  19. bat — the animal
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. band — a music group
  22. ball — a dance
  23. bear — the animal
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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