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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 room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — completely
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. wind — moving air
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. ground — a position
  9. capital — money
  10. track — a path
  11. track — to keep track
  12. ground — crushed
  13. ground — the earth
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. snap — to click
  16. capital — a city
  17. track — a song
  18. cold — not warm
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. file — a document
  21. wind — moving air
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. file — a tool
  24. file — a line of people

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