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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: chair · spring · press · snap · clip · wind

  1. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. press — to push
  3. clip — for paper
  4. chair — a leader
  5. clip — a video
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. spring — the season
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. clip — to cut
  10. wind — moving air
  11. press — a publisher
  12. spring — a coil
  13. wind — moving air
  14. press — newspapers
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. snap — to click
  18. spring — of water

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