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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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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 · pitch · degree · pitcher · bat · hand · ground · board

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  20. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. hand — in cards
  7. bat — the animal
  8. pitch — completely
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. ground — the earth
  11. degree — an amount
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. board — a flat piece
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. hand — help
  18. degree — from a university
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. board — to get on
  21. degree — temperature
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. board — a committee
  24. ground — a position

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