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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. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. We're on a ________________ here.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  21. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sports field
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. swing — to play on
  5. fall — to drop
  6. content — happy
  7. cold — not warm
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. cold — an illness
  11. fall — to drop
  12. roll — on a roll
  13. row — a line
  14. swing — music
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. fall — the season
  18. row — to paddle
  19. pitch — completely
  20. roll — a cake
  21. roll — a list
  22. content — the amount
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. swing — in golf

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