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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 124 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: patient · ground · roll · field · tear · fall · capital · cell

  1. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  2. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. We're on a ________________ here.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  10. There's no middle ________________.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a list
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. tear — to rip
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. fall — to drop
  6. field — farmland
  7. roll — on a roll
  8. tear — from crying
  9. patient — calm and waiting
  10. ground — a position
  11. tear — from crying
  12. capital — money
  13. ground — the earth
  14. cell — in biology
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. ground — crushed
  17. fall — the season
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. fall — to drop
  20. roll — a cake
  21. field — for sport
  22. field — a subject
  23. capital — a city
  24. cell — a phone

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