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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 120 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: clip · press · bat · pit · fan · club · cold · straw

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  20. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. Did you ________________ the button?

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. bat — the animal
  3. club — for golf
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. cold — not warm
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. cold — an illness
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. pit — in a race
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. clip — a video
  13. club — a group
  14. clip — for paper
  15. clip — to cut
  16. press — a publisher
  17. press — newspapers
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. club — for dancing
  20. pit — a fruit stone
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. pit — a hole
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. press — to push

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