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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: rash · chest · bark · kid · file · date · patient · cold

  1. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. Have you settled on a ________________?
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. kid — to tease
  5. chest — a box
  6. file — a document
  7. chest — of your body
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. rash — a series
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. date — the fruit
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. kid — child
  16. rash — hasty
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. chest — of your body
  19. bark — to shout
  20. cold — an illness
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. cold — not warm
  23. file — a tool
  24. file — a line of people

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