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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: tear · straw · rest · press · wind · clip

  1. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Did you ________________ the button?
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. rest — what's left
  3. wind — moving air
  4. tear — from crying
  5. rest — a break
  6. press — a publisher
  7. tear — from crying
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. rest — what's left
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. clip — to cut
  12. clip — for paper
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. press — to push
  15. clip — a video
  16. tear — to rip
  17. press — newspapers
  18. 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