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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: key · cold · hand · pit · field · patient · wind · shower

  1. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  12. This piece is in a major ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  20. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  21. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. wind — moving air
  4. key — the most important part
  5. shower — to wash
  6. cold — an illness
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. field — farmland
  9. shower — rain
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. pit — in a race
  12. key — in music
  13. cold — not warm
  14. wind — moving air
  15. hand — help
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. field — for sport
  18. field — a subject
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. key — for a lock
  21. pit — a fruit stone
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pit — a hole

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