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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: hand · pass · file · patient · field · drill · cold · wax

  1. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  3. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  22. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. patient — calm and waiting
  3. pass — to succeed
  4. drill — army training
  5. pass — a permit
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. drill — a practice
  8. wax — to grow
  9. field — for sport
  10. field — a subject
  11. hand — help
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. hand — in cards
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. field — farmland
  16. file — a document
  17. cold — not warm
  18. file — a line of people
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. wax — in the ear
  22. pass — to spend time
  23. file — a tool
  24. patient — a sick person

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