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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.

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: ground · cold · shower · face · content · wound · patient · land

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  19. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. wound — an injury
  3. land — to come down
  4. face — part of the head
  5. land — ground
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. land — a country
  10. wound — an injury
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. content — the amount
  14. ground — crushed
  15. cold — an illness
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. content — happy
  18. patient — calm and waiting
  19. face — to confront
  20. ground — the earth
  21. ground — a position
  22. cold — not warm
  23. face — to point toward
  24. shower — rain

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