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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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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: spring · patient · field · pound · chair · bowl · file · content

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  20. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. file — a line of people
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. bowl — to roll
  5. field — for sport
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. chair — a leader
  8. content — the amount
  9. file — a tool
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. spring — a coil
  12. spring — of water
  13. patient — calm and waiting
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. field — a subject
  16. bowl — a dish
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. file — a document
  19. pound — a weight
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. spring — the season
  22. bowl — a football final
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. field — farmland

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