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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: bark · shower · club · spring · field · pop · plane · wound

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  11. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. The ________________ took off on time.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. wound — an injury
  3. club — for golf
  4. field — a subject
  5. spring — the season
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. field — for sport
  9. spring — a coil
  10. club — a group
  11. plane — in geometry
  12. bark — to shout
  13. shower — to wash
  14. pop — to visit
  15. pop — soda
  16. spring — of water
  17. shower — rain
  18. plane — a tool
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. plane — an aircraft
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. wound — an injury
  23. club — for dancing
  24. pop — music

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