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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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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: content · clip · bound · spring · tear · stem · shower · march

  1. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  23. That was ________________ to happen.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — a meteor shower
  2. tear — from crying
  3. shower — to wash
  4. stem — to come from
  5. content — happy
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. bound — tied together
  8. spring — a coil
  9. shower — rain
  10. march — the month
  11. clip — a video
  12. spring — the season
  13. tear — to rip
  14. tear — from crying
  15. clip — for paper
  16. spring — of water
  17. march — music
  18. content — the amount
  19. bound — obliged
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. clip — to cut
  22. stem — of a plant
  23. bound — certain
  24. march — the month

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