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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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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: kid · spring · tear · hide · stem · wake · mine · court

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. stem — to come from
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. hide — to keep secret
  5. court — of law
  6. court — of a king
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. spring — a coil
  9. tear — to rip
  10. spring — of water
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. wake — a trail
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. mine — for digging
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. tear — from crying
  18. kid — child
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. hide — animal skin
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. kid — to tease
  23. spring — the season
  24. tear — from crying

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