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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: shower · field · fine · bark · cold · patient · deal · kid

  1. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  9. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  10. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  11. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  14. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — an agreement
  2. field — a subject
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. field — for sport
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. bark — to shout
  7. field — farmland
  8. fine — all right
  9. fine — a penalty
  10. deal — a big deal
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. cold — an illness
  13. patient — calm and waiting
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. kid — child
  16. fine — high quality
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. deal — to handle
  20. shower — to wash
  21. kid — to tease
  22. cold — not warm
  23. shower — rain
  24. bark — of a tree

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