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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  12. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  13. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. pitch — a sports field
  3. clip — a video
  4. chip — for betting
  5. cold — not warm
  6. net — after costs
  7. net — in sport
  8. net — for catching
  9. stick — a piece of wood
  10. game — wild animals
  11. stick — to attach or keep to
  12. pitch — completely
  13. stick — a piece of wood
  14. clip — to cut
  15. prune — to trim
  16. prune — to trim
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. game — a match
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. clip — for paper
  21. pitch — a sales talk
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. chip — to eat
  24. cold — the Cold War

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