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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.

Words on the sheet
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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: pitcher · spell · court · shower · clip · content · pitch · hand

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. hand — help
  3. clip — to cut
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. court — of a king
  6. clip — a video
  7. pitch — completely
  8. court — for sport
  9. spell — magic
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. clip — for paper
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. hand — in cards
  16. spell — a short time
  17. content — the amount
  18. spell — letters
  19. pitch — a sports field
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. shower — to wash
  22. court — of law
  23. shower — rain
  24. pitcher — a jug

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