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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: board · row · pitch · cold · clip · prune · fall · field

  1. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  10. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. field — a subject
  3. fall — to drop
  4. cold — an illness
  5. clip — a video
  6. board — to get on
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — to cut
  9. board — a committee
  10. pitch — a sports field
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. row — to paddle
  15. prune — to trim
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cold — not warm
  18. field — for sport
  19. field — farmland
  20. board — a flat piece
  21. prune — to trim
  22. pitch — completely
  23. fall — the season
  24. fall — to drop

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