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

Word bank: swing · pitch · chest · prune · press · cold · ball · snap

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. Did you ________________ the button?
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. pitch — a sports field
  3. ball — a great time
  4. press — to push
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. pitch — completely
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. chest — a box
  9. cold — an illness
  10. pitch — a sales talk
  11. swing — to play on
  12. press — newspapers
  13. prune — to trim
  14. cold — not warm
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. swing — in golf
  17. prune — to trim
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. ball — a dance
  20. chest — of your body
  21. swing — music
  22. snap — to click
  23. press — a publisher
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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