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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 · content · cap · stand · hand · spell · game · wind

  1. I can't ________________ this cold.
  2. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  3. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  16. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. stand — to bear
  2. cap — a hat
  3. stand — for spectators
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. hand — help
  6. spell — magic
  7. land — ground
  8. content — the amount
  9. hand — in cards
  10. land — to come down
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. cap — of ice
  13. content — happy
  14. spell — letters
  15. stand — on your feet
  16. cap — a lid
  17. spell — a short time
  18. game — a match
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. game — wild animals
  21. land — a country
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. wind — moving air
  24. wind — moving air

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