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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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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: patient · cold · file · root · scale · field · court · present

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. court — for sport
  3. file — a line of people
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. field — for sport
  8. file — a document
  9. scale — in music
  10. root — of a plant
  11. field — farmland
  12. scale — size or range
  13. file — a tool
  14. court — of law
  15. court — of a king
  16. present — there
  17. field — a subject
  18. root — the cause
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. present — a gift
  21. root — of a word
  22. present — the time now
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. cold — an illness

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