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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: field · racket · patient · march · file · clip · hand · game

  1. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  24. He hit the ball with his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — a loud noise
  2. field — a subject
  3. field — for sport
  4. march — the month
  5. field — farmland
  6. game — wild animals
  7. clip — to cut
  8. hand — in cards
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. march — music
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. game — a match
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. file — a tool
  16. hand — help
  17. march — the month
  18. clip — a video
  19. clip — for paper
  20. file — a document
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. file — a line of people
  23. racket — for tennis
  24. racket — for tennis

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