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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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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: field · bat · patient · cold · pit · lean · ground · last

  1. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  3. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. There's no middle ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. pit — a fruit stone
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. field — farmland
  5. lean — thin
  6. field — for sport
  7. last — final
  8. pit — in a race
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. cold — not warm
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. lean — to rest against
  14. ground — the earth
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. lean — to bend
  17. field — a subject
  18. pit — a hole
  19. last — to go on
  20. ground — a position
  21. cold — an illness
  22. ground — crushed
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. bat — the animal

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