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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: wake · board · hand · row · clip · land · pitch · wind

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. wind — moving air
  3. board — to get on
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. clip — to cut
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. row — a line
  8. board — a committee
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. pitch — completely
  11. hand — in cards
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. clip — for paper
  14. land — to come down
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. land — ground
  18. row — to paddle
  19. wake — a trail
  20. hand — help
  21. wind — moving air
  22. land — a country
  23. board — a flat piece
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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