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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: clip · tear · field · chip · cap · pitch · wound · net

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  15. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. The players ran onto the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. tear — from crying
  4. cap — of ice
  5. clip — to cut
  6. pitch — a sales talk
  7. tear — to rip
  8. clip — a video
  9. chip — for betting
  10. wound — an injury
  11. tear — from crying
  12. cap — a lid
  13. net — for catching
  14. chip — to eat
  15. chip — in a computer
  16. wound — an injury
  17. field — for sport
  18. clip — for paper
  19. net — in sport
  20. pitch — completely
  21. net — after costs
  22. field — a subject
  23. cap — a hat
  24. pitch — a sports field

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