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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. field — a subject
  3. tear — from crying
  4. march — the month
  5. tear — to rip
  6. field — for sport
  7. mine — for digging
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. tear — from crying
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. bear — the animal
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. chest — a box
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. chest — of your body
  17. bear — the animal
  18. chest — of your body
  19. march — the month
  20. cold — an illness
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. field — farmland
  23. bear — to put up with
  24. march — music

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