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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  8. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. row — a line
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. bore — to tire
  8. bore — to drill
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. shower — to wash
  11. tear — from crying
  12. content — the amount
  13. bore — gave birth
  14. tear — to rip
  15. content — happy
  16. row — to paddle
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. bark — to shout
  19. spring — the season
  20. tear — from crying
  21. wake — before a funeral
  22. wake — a trail
  23. spring — of water
  24. spring — a coil

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