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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: cold · chair · wind · mate · fine · fall · straw · clip

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. fall — to drop
  6. fine — a penalty
  7. mate — a friend
  8. mate — to breed
  9. mate — a partner
  10. fine — high quality
  11. wind — moving air
  12. chair — a leader
  13. fall — the season
  14. wind — moving air
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — to cut
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. fine — all right
  19. cold — an illness
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. clip — a video
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — not warm
  24. fall — to drop

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