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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: game · wind · root · chair · cold · hand · rest · snap

  1. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. wind — moving air
  4. root — of a word
  5. wind — moving air
  6. rest — a break
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — not warm
  9. snap — to click
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. game — a match
  12. chair — a leader
  13. cold — an illness
  14. rest — what's left
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. hand — help
  19. root — of a plant
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. root — the cause
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. hand — in cards
  24. rest — what's left

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