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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: land · clip · press · tube · shower · lash · snap · bat

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  14. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  15. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. Did you ________________ the button?
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. The spa offers ________________ extensions.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. press — a publisher
  3. clip — to cut
  4. land — to come down
  5. tube — a container
  6. tube — the underground
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. snap — to click
  10. bat — the animal
  11. shower — to wash
  12. clip — a video
  13. tube — in a tire
  14. lash — to lash out
  15. lash — a whip stroke
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. clip — for paper
  18. land — ground
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. press — to push
  21. shower — rain
  22. press — newspapers
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. lash — an eyelash

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