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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 116 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: game · cold · spring · coach · bore · tear · net · bark

  1. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. Have you met the new head ________________?
  16. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bore — gave birth
  2. spring — of water
  3. tear — to rip
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. game — a match
  6. cold — not warm
  7. bark — to shout
  8. net — in sport
  9. spring — a coil
  10. tear — from crying
  11. net — for catching
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. bore — to drill
  17. spring — the season
  18. bore — to tire
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. tear — from crying
  21. cold — an illness
  22. net — after costs
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. game — wild animals

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