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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 players ran onto the football ________________.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Have you found your soul ________________?
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sports field
  2. squash — to crush
  3. chest — a box
  4. mate — a partner
  5. race — the arms race
  6. clip — to cut
  7. squash — the sport
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. mate — to breed
  11. degree — temperature
  12. pitch — completely
  13. clip — for paper
  14. chest — of your body
  15. clip — a video
  16. degree — an amount
  17. chest — of your body
  18. race — a contest
  19. race — humankind
  20. wind — moving air
  21. wind — moving air
  22. degree — from a university
  23. mate — a friend
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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