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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: cold · snap · squash · straw · press · kid · rule · wind

  1. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  7. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  8. Did you ________________ the button?
  9. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. wind — moving air
  5. cold — not warm
  6. rule — to rule out
  7. squash — the sport
  8. press — to push
  9. press — a publisher
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. press — newspapers
  13. squash — to crush
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. rule — government
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. wind — moving air
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. kid — to tease
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. kid — child
  23. snap — to click
  24. cold — an illness

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