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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 120 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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: clip · coach · pitch · cell · chest · kid

  1. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  4. Have you met the new head ________________?
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — completely
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. chest — a box
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. kid — to tease
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. clip — for paper
  10. cell — a phone
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. cell — in biology
  13. clip — a video
  14. clip — to cut
  15. chest — of your body
  16. chest — of your body
  17. pitch — a sales talk
  18. kid — child

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