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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. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  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. pitch — a sales talk
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. pitch — a sports field
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. cold — not warm
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. chest — of your body
  8. cold — an illness
  9. season — in sport
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. chest — a box
  14. pitch — completely
  15. sharp — clever
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. capital — a city
  18. season — of the year
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. chest — of your body
  22. chair — a leader
  23. capital — money
  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