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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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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: root · patient · field · lash · snap · mine · band · cold

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. cold — an illness
  3. lash — an eyelash
  4. field — a subject
  5. lash — to lash out
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. root — the cause
  8. root — of a plant
  9. band — a ring
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. lash — a whip stroke
  12. mine — for digging
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. snap — to click
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. field — farmland
  17. root — of a word
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. cold — not warm
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. patient — calm and waiting
  24. field — for sport

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