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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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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: scale · spring · bark · chest · shower · kid · band · tear

  1. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — to rip
  2. band — a ring
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. scale — in music
  5. shower — to wash
  6. tear — from crying
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. scale — size or range
  11. chest — a box
  12. kid — to tease
  13. tear — from crying
  14. spring — of water
  15. spring — the season
  16. chest — of your body
  17. spring — a coil
  18. kid — child
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. shower — rain
  21. band — a music group
  22. chest — of your body
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. bark — to shout

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