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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: arm · content · scale · bat · lash · pitch · capital · clip

  1. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  4. My father caught me by the ________________.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — a whip stroke
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. arm — a part of something
  4. arm — part of the body
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. bat — the animal
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. content — happy
  9. capital — money
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. content — the amount
  13. clip — a video
  14. pitch — completely
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. scale — in music
  18. clip — to cut
  19. lash — an eyelash
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. lash — to lash out
  22. capital — a city
  23. clip — for paper
  24. scale — size or range

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