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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 116 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: field · patient · tear · cold · fall · row

  1. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — the season
  2. fall — to drop
  3. cold — an illness
  4. field — farmland
  5. tear — to rip
  6. tear — from crying
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. row — a line
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. row — to paddle
  12. field — a subject
  13. field — for sport
  14. cold — not warm
  15. tear — from crying
  16. patient — calm and waiting
  17. fall — to drop
  18. row — a quarrel

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