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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 120 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: patient · cold · clip · game · land · mine · bound · chair

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. That was ________________ to happen.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. bound — obliged
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. land — a country
  5. cold — an illness
  6. bound — certain
  7. land — ground
  8. patient — calm and waiting
  9. cold — not warm
  10. clip — for paper
  11. clip — a video
  12. bound — tied together
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. game — wild animals
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. mine — for digging
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. game — a match
  22. land — to come down
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. chair — a leader

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