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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  12. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  13. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. pitch — a sports field
  3. clip — for paper
  4. scale — size or range
  5. racket — a loud noise
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. content — happy
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. net — after costs
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. pitch — completely
  12. current — electric
  13. pitch — a sales talk
  14. net — for catching
  15. racket — for tennis
  16. cold — not warm
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. net — in sport
  19. scale — in music
  20. current — happening now
  21. clip — a video
  22. content — the amount
  23. current — of water
  24. cold — an illness

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