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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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Word bank
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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: stem · current · march · file · field · cold

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. stem — of a plant
  3. field — a subject
  4. current — electric
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. file — a line of people
  7. stem — to come from
  8. march — the month
  9. march — music
  10. file — a document
  11. current — happening now
  12. field — farmland
  13. file — a tool
  14. cold — not warm
  15. field — for sport
  16. current — of water
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — an illness

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