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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: clip · lean · bat · press · season · lie · cold · nail

  1. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  2. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  5. Did you ________________ the button?
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  8. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The ________________ went through the wall.
  11. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  12. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  13. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  21. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — on a finger
  2. season — of the year
  3. clip — to cut
  4. lie — to recline
  5. press — to push
  6. clip — a video
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. lean — to bend
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. lie — an untruth
  12. lean — to rest against
  13. lean — thin
  14. cold — not warm
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. clip — for paper
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. cold — an illness
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. lie — an untruth
  21. season — in sport
  22. press — newspapers
  23. bat — the animal
  24. press — a publisher

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