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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. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  11. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  22. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  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 — completely
  2. net — for catching
  3. cold — an illness
  4. race — the arms race
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. net — in sport
  7. wound — an injury
  8. race — a contest
  9. race — humankind
  10. object — to protest
  11. object — an aim
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. cold — not warm
  14. net — after costs
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. object — a thing
  17. wind — moving air
  18. wound — an injury
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. fork — a garden tool
  22. fork — in a road
  23. wind — moving air
  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