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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: land · patient · march · chest · drill · clip · content · rock

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. chest — of your body
  3. march — the month
  4. drill — army training
  5. chest — of your body
  6. rock — to move gently
  7. clip — to cut
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. march — music
  10. land — a country
  11. chest — a box
  12. rock — music
  13. clip — for paper
  14. land — ground
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. march — the month
  17. clip — a video
  18. rock — a stone
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. content — the amount
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. land — to come down
  23. drill — the tool
  24. drill — a practice

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