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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: ground · tube · shower · coach · row · fork · wake · date

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. Have you settled on a ________________?
  7. There's no middle ________________.
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  16. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  17. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. ground — crushed
  3. shower — rain
  4. tube — in a tire
  5. ground — the earth
  6. date — on the calendar
  7. ground — a position
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. row — a line
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. row — to paddle
  13. fork — in a road
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. coach — pulled by horses
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. wake — before a funeral
  18. tube — the underground
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. tube — a container
  21. date — the fruit
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. wake — a trail
  24. coach — a trainer

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