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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: land · chip · wake · root · march · snap · cold · spring

  1. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  4. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  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. snap — to click
  2. march — music
  3. chip — for betting
  4. root — of a plant
  5. wake — a trail
  6. march — the month
  7. land — to come down
  8. spring — of water
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. cold — not warm
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. land — a country
  13. land — ground
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. chip — in a computer
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. root — of a word
  18. spring — a coil
  19. spring — the season
  20. march — the month
  21. chip — to eat
  22. cold — an illness
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  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