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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: kick · wind · land · snap · clip · lean · field · row

  1. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. clip — for paper
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. field — farmland
  5. land — a country
  6. land — ground
  7. clip — to cut
  8. wind — moving air
  9. lean — to rest against
  10. field — a subject
  11. row — to paddle
  12. row — a line
  13. field — for sport
  14. clip — a video
  15. kick — a thrill
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. lean — to bend
  18. snap — to click
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. lean — thin
  21. wind — moving air
  22. kick — in football
  23. land — to come down
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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