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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: straw · chest · track · pitch · cold · sharp · date · stock

  1. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. Have you settled on a ________________?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sports field
  2. sharp — clever
  3. date — the fruit
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. cold — an illness
  7. track — a path
  8. chest — of your body
  9. stock — goods
  10. track — a song
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. track — to keep track
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. chest — of your body
  16. pitch — completely
  17. pitch — a sales talk
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. chest — a box
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. cold — not warm
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. stock — shares
  24. date — on the calendar

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