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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: pitch · firm · lean · mouse · clip · present · cold · file

  1. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  5. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  6. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  11. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  12. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  13. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  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. present — a gift
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. lean — to bend
  4. firm — steady
  5. firm — decided
  6. firm — a company
  7. clip — to cut
  8. file — a line of people
  9. file — a tool
  10. present — there
  11. mouse — the animal
  12. mouse — the animal
  13. lean — to rest against
  14. file — a document
  15. mouse — for a computer
  16. clip — for paper
  17. lean — thin
  18. present — the time now
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. clip — a video
  22. cold — an illness
  23. pitch — completely
  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