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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: ground · swing · snap · last · wind · straw · clip · press

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. Did you ________________ the button?
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. last — to go on
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. last — final
  5. swing — to play on
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. ground — the earth
  9. clip — a video
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. last — finally
  12. clip — for paper
  13. swing — music
  14. press — a publisher
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. ground — crushed
  17. wind — moving air
  18. press — newspapers
  19. ground — a position
  20. clip — to cut
  21. swing — in golf
  22. press — to push
  23. snap — to click
  24. wind — to turn a key

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