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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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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 · press · wound · straw · band · bat · rest · perch

  1. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  9. Did you ________________ the button?
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — the fish
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. rest — a break
  4. band — a music group
  5. wind — moving air
  6. band — a ring
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. rest — what's left
  9. press — to push
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. press — a publisher
  16. press — newspapers
  17. bat — the animal
  18. wound — an injury
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. wound — an injury
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. wind — moving air
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. rest — what's left

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