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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: wind · cold · net · stick · straw · snap · branch · row

  1. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  21. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  24. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. cold — not warm
  3. wind — moving air
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. wind — moving air
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. branch — a division
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. net — in sport
  10. cold — an illness
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. row — to paddle
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. row — a line
  17. net — for catching
  18. snap — to click
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. net — after costs
  21. stick — a piece of wood
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. stick — a piece of wood
  24. stick — to attach or keep to

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