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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sales talk
  2. chest — of your body
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. chest — of your body
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. land — a country
  9. tear — to rip
  10. game — a match
  11. cell — a phone
  12. land — ground
  13. cell — in biology
  14. hand — in cards
  15. tear — from crying
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. land — to come down
  18. hand — help
  19. chest — a box
  20. pitch — a sports field
  21. tear — from crying
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. pitch — completely
  24. game — wild animals

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