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

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  5. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  17. That was ________________ to happen.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. field — farmland
  3. present — a gift
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. present — the time now
  6. cold — an illness
  7. race — the arms race
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. field — a subject
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. race — a contest
  14. present — there
  15. tear — from crying
  16. bound — tied together
  17. bound — certain
  18. field — for sport
  19. race — humankind
  20. patient — calm and waiting
  21. tear — from crying
  22. bound — obliged
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. tear — to rip

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