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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. wind — moving air
  3. hand — in cards
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. spring — the season
  6. land — a country
  7. wind — moving air
  8. spring — of water
  9. drill — army training
  10. root — of a plant
  11. file — a line of people
  12. hand — help
  13. spell — a short time
  14. file — a document
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. root — of a word
  17. file — a tool
  18. spell — letters
  19. drill — a practice
  20. spring — a coil
  21. drill — the tool
  22. land — to come down
  23. spell — magic
  24. root — the cause

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