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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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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 · prune · land · cold · foot · march · straw · clip

  1. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. wind — moving air
  4. march — the month
  5. foot — the bottom
  6. march — the month
  7. foot — a measure
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. clip — a video
  10. land — to come down
  11. cold — an illness
  12. prune — to trim
  13. land — ground
  14. cold — not warm
  15. clip — to cut
  16. foot — part of the body
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. land — a country
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. wind — moving air
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. prune — to trim
  23. march — music
  24. clip — for paper

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