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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.

Make a worksheet

Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

Words on the sheet
468
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: tear · field · cold · land · mine · leaves

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. land — to come down
  3. land — ground
  4. cold — not warm
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. field — for sport
  7. tear — from crying
  8. field — farmland
  9. leaves — of a tree
  10. field — a subject
  11. leaves — to go away
  12. tear — from crying
  13. tear — to rip
  14. leaves — lets stay
  15. mine — for digging
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. land — a country
  18. mine — an explosive

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