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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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Word bank
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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: snap · clip · wound · rash · straw · drill · bass · cold

  1. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. clip — to cut
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. wound — an injury
  8. rash — on the skin
  9. clip — for paper
  10. drill — the tool
  11. drill — a practice
  12. drill — army training
  13. rash — hasty
  14. clip — a video
  15. wound — an injury
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. cold — an illness
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. cold — not warm
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. snap — to click
  23. bass — the fish
  24. rash — a series

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