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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: spring · court · pit · kid · cold · racket · bark · shower

  1. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. court — for sport
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. shower — rain
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. bark — to shout
  8. pit — in a race
  9. shower — to wash
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. pit — a hole
  12. kid — child
  13. cold — not warm
  14. racket — a loud noise
  15. court — of a king
  16. court — of law
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. cold — an illness
  19. spring — of water
  20. kid — to tease
  21. spring — the season
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. spring — a coil

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