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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: club · tear · spring · track · mate · hide · kid · roll

  1. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  5. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. We're on a ________________ here.
  10. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  14. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  19. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  20. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  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. roll — a cake
  2. track — to keep track
  3. tear — from crying
  4. club — a group
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. kid — child
  7. mate — a friend
  8. mate — a partner
  9. roll — on a roll
  10. hide — to keep secret
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. track — a path
  13. club — for golf
  14. club — for dancing
  15. spring — of water
  16. kid — to tease
  17. spring — a coil
  18. track — a song
  19. roll — a list
  20. mate — to breed
  21. tear — to rip
  22. hide — animal skin
  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