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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: cold · clip · chest · shower · tear · patient · root · calf

  1. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  16. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. calf — a young animal
  3. chest — of your body
  4. calf — a young animal
  5. chest — of your body
  6. clip — for paper
  7. tear — from crying
  8. cold — an illness
  9. root — of a word
  10. root — the cause
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. tear — to rip
  13. clip — a video
  14. shower — rain
  15. calf — of the leg
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. shower — to wash
  18. chest — a box
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. clip — to cut
  23. root — of a plant
  24. cold — not warm

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