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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: shower · chest · wind · field · bark · cell

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. field — a subject
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. cell — a phone
  6. bark — to shout
  7. shower — to wash
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. chest — of your body
  10. field — farmland
  11. chest — a box
  12. field — for sport
  13. cell — in biology
  14. wind — moving air
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. wind — moving air
  17. chest — of your body
  18. bark — a dog's sound

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