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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. pitch — completely
  4. court — for sport
  5. clip — a video
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. net — for catching
  8. court — of law
  9. clip — to cut
  10. net — in sport
  11. last — final
  12. bear — the animal
  13. wind — moving air
  14. clip — for paper
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. last — to go on
  17. bear — to put up with
  18. last — finally
  19. pitch — a sports field
  20. shower — rain
  21. court — of a king
  22. bear — the animal
  23. wind — moving air
  24. net — after costs

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