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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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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 · patient · degree · bay · chest · face · pitch · hand

  1. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  2. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. My mare is ________________ in color.
  14. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. bay — to keep at bay
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cold — an illness
  5. bay — a part of the sea
  6. face — to confront
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. face — to point toward
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. chest — of your body
  11. degree — an amount
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. bay — a horse colour
  14. pitch — a sports field
  15. degree — temperature
  16. pitch — completely
  17. degree — from a university
  18. hand — in cards
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. hand — help
  21. chest — of your body
  22. face — part of the head
  23. chest — a box
  24. patient — a sick person

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