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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 120 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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: swing · spell · pitch · capital · spring · net · content · kid

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. spell — letters
  3. net — in sport
  4. spell — magic
  5. capital — money
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. kid — child
  8. spell — a short time
  9. pitch — completely
  10. spring — the season
  11. net — for catching
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. capital — a city
  14. spring — of water
  15. spring — a coil
  16. swing — to play on
  17. swing — in golf
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. content — happy
  21. content — the amount
  22. swing — music
  23. kid — to tease
  24. content — videos and posts

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