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

Word bank: present · drill · land · cold · club · wind · game · root

  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. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  22. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  23. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  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. present — the time now
  4. land — a country
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. drill — a practice
  7. drill — the tool
  8. club — for dancing
  9. cold — an illness
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. cold — not warm
  12. club — a group
  13. land — to come down
  14. wind — moving air
  15. game — a match
  16. present — there
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. drill — army training
  19. club — for golf
  20. game — wild animals
  21. present — a gift
  22. root — of a word
  23. root — of a plant
  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