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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: object · court · shower · tear · cold · wind

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. cold — not warm
  3. court — for sport
  4. court — of law
  5. tear — to rip
  6. tear — from crying
  7. court — of a king
  8. object — to protest
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. object — a thing
  12. shower — to wash
  13. cold — an illness
  14. tear — from crying
  15. object — an aim
  16. shower — rain
  17. wind — moving air
  18. wind — moving air

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