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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 116 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. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sales talk
  2. lean — thin
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. cold — not warm
  5. capital — money
  6. kid — child
  7. lean — to rest against
  8. cold — an illness
  9. perch — the fish
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. kid — to tease
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. face — to confront
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. lean — to bend
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. face — to point toward
  22. face — part of the head
  23. pitch — completely
  24. capital — a city

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