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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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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: pitch · cold · bulb · wound · net · hand · spring · clip

  1. I've got to change the light ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The light ________________ burned out.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  18. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  22. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — for light
  2. cold — not warm
  3. net — after costs
  4. spring — a coil
  5. clip — for paper
  6. cold — an illness
  7. spring — of water
  8. hand — in cards
  9. spring — the season
  10. wound — an injury
  11. net — for catching
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. hand — help
  14. clip — to cut
  15. bulb — for light
  16. clip — a video
  17. pitch — a sports field
  18. pitch — completely
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. wound — an injury
  21. bulb — of a plant
  22. pitch — a sales talk
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. net — in sport

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