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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 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. This piece is in a major ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sales talk
  2. key — in music
  3. clip — for paper
  4. spring — a coil
  5. court — for sport
  6. court — of a king
  7. pitch — completely
  8. chest — of your body
  9. key — for a lock
  10. spring — the season
  11. court — of law
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. degree — temperature
  14. clip — a video
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. spring — of water
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. clip — to cut
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. degree — an amount
  21. chest — of your body
  22. degree — from a university
  23. key — the most important part
  24. chest — a box

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