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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: chest · lash · squash · prune · wind · kick · row · clip

  1. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. wind — moving air
  3. chest — a box
  4. squash — to crush
  5. row — a line
  6. wind — moving air
  7. clip — to cut
  8. clip — for paper
  9. lash — to lash out
  10. row — to paddle
  11. clip — a video
  12. prune — to trim
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. chest — of your body
  16. squash — the sport
  17. kick — with a leg
  18. prune — to trim
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. kick — in football
  21. chest — of your body
  22. lash — an eyelash
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. lash — a whip stroke

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