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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 120 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: court · shower · spring · dip · kid · mug · tear · sharp

  1. Where did you ________________ them?
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  20. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. It's one o'clock ________________.
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  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. mug — to rob
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. tear — from crying
  4. kid — to tease
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. dip — to dunk
  7. spring — of water
  8. tear — to rip
  9. court — of law
  10. court — of a king
  11. dip — to sink
  12. shower — to wash
  13. tear — from crying
  14. mug — a cup
  15. spring — the season
  16. kid — child
  17. shower — rain
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. sharp — clever
  20. mug — a face
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. sharp — exactly
  23. court — for sport
  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