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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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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: land · scale · patient · wave · file · cold · ground · fall

  1. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  24. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. ground — crushed
  4. wave — a sudden rise
  5. land — to come down
  6. wave — of the sea
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. scale — in music
  9. file — a document
  10. file — a line of people
  11. ground — the earth
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. cold — not warm
  14. land — ground
  15. fall — to drop
  16. ground — a position
  17. file — a tool
  18. patient — calm and waiting
  19. fall — the season
  20. cold — an illness
  21. scale — size or range
  22. land — a country
  23. wave — with your hand
  24. patient — a sick person

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