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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 116 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: spring · trunk · kid · straw · clip · bound · row · wave

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  8. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. That was ________________ to happen.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. kid — to tease
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. spring — a coil
  7. wave — of the sea
  8. bound — tied together
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. clip — to cut
  11. row — to paddle
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. kid — child
  14. bound — obliged
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. bound — certain
  17. clip — a video
  18. spring — the season
  19. wave — a sudden rise
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. row — a line
  22. spring — of water
  23. wave — with your hand
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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