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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: shower · mate · plane · bark · coach · game · ground · kid

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. Have you found your soul ________________?
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. Have you met the new head ________________?
  20. There's no middle ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. game — wild animals
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. mate — a partner
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. kid — child
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. mate — to breed
  13. plane — a tool
  14. ground — the earth
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. mate — a friend
  17. game — a match
  18. bark — to shout
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. ground — a position
  21. shower — to wash
  22. ground — crushed
  23. shower — rain
  24. plane — in geometry

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