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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: bat · chest · mine · hand · patient · last · can · cell

  1. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  2. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. can — a tin
  2. patient — calm and waiting
  3. chest — of your body
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. hand — help
  8. hand — in cards
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. mine — for digging
  11. last — final
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. last — to go on
  14. can — a tin
  15. chest — of your body
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. cell — in biology
  18. can — to be able to
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. chest — a box
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. cell — a phone
  23. last — finally
  24. bat — the animal

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