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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 116 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: cold · chair · patient · pitch · file · wound · net · swing

  1. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. David sat on the ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. swing — to play on
  3. cold — not warm
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. cold — an illness
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. net — after costs
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. swing — in golf
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. file — a line of people
  14. pitch — completely
  15. chair — a leader
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. net — for catching
  19. wound — an injury
  20. swing — music
  21. file — a tool
  22. file — a document
  23. net — in sport
  24. chair — to sit on

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