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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  15. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. race — a contest
  3. game — wild animals
  4. wound — an injury
  5. pitch — completely
  6. season — in sport
  7. game — a match
  8. can — a tin
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. race — the arms race
  12. can — to be able to
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. pitch — a sales talk
  15. season — of the year
  16. march — the month
  17. race — humankind
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. march — the month
  20. can — a tin
  21. wound — an injury
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. march — music
  24. bat — the animal

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