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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 120 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 · wind · clip · kid · shower · pop · cell · spring

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. We're almost out of ________________.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. You don't need to ________________ round.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. pop — soda
  3. spring — of water
  4. cell — in biology
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. clip — for paper
  8. wind — moving air
  9. pop — music
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. kid — child
  12. wind — moving air
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. shower — rain
  15. pop — to visit
  16. clip — a video
  17. shower — to wash
  18. cell — a phone
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. clip — to cut
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. spring — a coil
  23. bark — to shout
  24. kid — to tease

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