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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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468
Word bank
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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  5. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  6. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. pitch — a sports field
  3. spell — a short time
  4. stick — a piece of wood
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. pitch — completely
  7. degree — temperature
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. stick — to attach or keep to
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. spell — letters
  12. clip — for paper
  13. chest — a box
  14. clip — to cut
  15. racket — for tennis
  16. chest — of your body
  17. racket — a loud noise
  18. pound — a weight
  19. degree — from a university
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. clip — a video
  22. spell — magic
  23. stick — a piece of wood
  24. degree — an amount

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