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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: net · mine · cold · pitch · press · court · tear · rock

  1. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Did you ________________ the button?
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  23. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  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. pitch — a sales talk
  2. mine — for digging
  3. net — after costs
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. net — for catching
  6. court — for sport
  7. pitch — completely
  8. tear — from crying
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. cold — an illness
  11. court — of law
  12. tear — to rip
  13. press — newspapers
  14. cold — not warm
  15. rock — a stone
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. press — to push
  18. court — of a king
  19. tear — from crying
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. rock — music
  23. press — a publisher
  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