Words with Multiple Meanings Worksheet

Some words look the same and sound the same, yet they carry more than one meaning, and this Words with Multiple Meanings Worksheet gives second graders the practice they need to tell those meanings apart. The word ring can name a piece of jewelry on a finger or describe the sound a school bell makes at lunchtime. The word trunk can be the front of an elephant or the thick stem of an oak tree. Nothing about the letters tells a reader which meaning belongs on the page, so students have to slow down and use the words around it. Learning to read that sentence context is one of the very first real comprehension strategies children build, and it keeps paying off in reading, in math word problems, and in science.

This printable Multiple Meaning Words Worksheet is built in two parts, and each part asks for a different kind of thinking. In the first part, students read six sentences and choose from a word box holding three words: light, ring, and trunk. Every word in the box is used two times with a different meaning each time, so students discover for themselves that the sentence decides the answer rather than the word list. In the second part, two short meanings are printed side by side on each line and students write the one word that carries both of them, working from meaning back to the word. Hand the page out during a vocabulary block, send it home as homework, use it as morning work, or save it for a quick review before a reading assessment.

What’s Included

• A two page printable PDF worksheet, ready to print with no preparation
• A word box of three multiple meaning words for the six sentence items
• Six sentences that can only be finished by reading the surrounding context
• Three meaning pairs that ask students to recall the word from its two meanings
• A complete answer key on the final page

Three Reasons This Helps Kids

• It teaches students to use context instead of guessing, which is exactly what reading tests ask them to do
• Reusing each word twice makes the idea of two meanings concrete and impossible to miss
• The second part flips the task, so students practice both recognizing and recalling vocabulary

Ideas for Teachers and Parents

Read the first sentence aloud together and ask students to explain how they knew which meaning fit before they wrote anything down. After the page is finished, challenge students to find one more meaning for each word in the box, or to write a brand new sentence for a meaning the worksheet did not use. Partners can trade papers and read their sentences to each other, listening for the meaning clue. A Words with Multiple Meanings Worksheet also works well in a small group, where one student reads the meanings from the second part while the others race to name the word.

Related Resources

• Multiple Meanings Worksheet
• Multiple Meanings Words Worksheet
• Matching Multiple Meaning Worksheet
• Context Clues Song