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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: scale · pass · kid · patient · fall · field · cold · row

  1. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  17. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  18. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  19. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. row — a line
  4. cold — an illness
  5. field — for sport
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. field — farmland
  8. field — a subject
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. fall — the season
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. cold — not warm
  13. row — to paddle
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. kid — child
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. pass — to succeed
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. pass — to spend time
  20. fall — to drop
  21. scale — in music
  22. pass — a permit
  23. kid — to tease
  24. scale — size or range

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