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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: wind · stand · mine · clip · spell · root · object · cold

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  3. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  11. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. I can't ________________ this cold.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  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. mine — belonging to me
  2. object — to protest
  3. stand — on your feet
  4. cold — not warm
  5. root — of a plant
  6. wind — moving air
  7. spell — magic
  8. stand — for spectators
  9. clip — to cut
  10. object — a thing
  11. object — an aim
  12. clip — for paper
  13. spell — letters
  14. spell — a short time
  15. clip — a video
  16. stand — to bear
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. mine — for digging
  22. wind — moving air
  23. root — of a word
  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