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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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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: cold · shower · bark · date · stem · pop · toast · tear

  1. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  3. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. date — the fruit
  3. toast — bread
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. shower — rain
  7. toast — the most admired
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. toast — a drink to someone
  10. shower — to wash
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. cold — an illness
  13. tear — to rip
  14. pop — to visit
  15. pop — soda
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. bark — to shout
  20. tear — from crying
  21. pop — music
  22. tear — from crying
  23. cold — not warm
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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