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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: present · field · land · patient · temple · cold · shower · sharp

  1. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. When was this ________________ built?
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  22. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. present — a gift
  3. field — farmland
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. land — a country
  7. cold — not warm
  8. temple — a place of worship
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. sharp — clever
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. land — to come down
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. shower — rain
  15. temple — side of the head
  16. field — for sport
  17. present — the time now
  18. cold — an illness
  19. field — a subject
  20. land — ground
  21. present — there
  22. temple — a place of worship
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. shower — to wash

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