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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: chest · land · band · press · clip · kick · squash · plane

  1. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. Did you ________________ the button?
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The ________________ took off on time.
  17. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  18. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. chest — a box
  4. land — ground
  5. squash — to crush
  6. land — to come down
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. chest — of your body
  9. kick — in football
  10. press — to push
  11. clip — a video
  12. land — a country
  13. band — a ring
  14. clip — to cut
  15. clip — for paper
  16. plane — an aircraft
  17. kick — with a leg
  18. press — a publisher
  19. press — newspapers
  20. plane — a tool
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. band — a music group
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. chest — of your body

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