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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: bowl · cold · pitch · mine · ground · band · patient · clip

  1. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. cold — an illness
  4. pitch — completely
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. band — a ring
  8. ground — crushed
  9. ground — a position
  10. clip — to cut
  11. mine — for digging
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. clip — for paper
  14. band — a music group
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. bowl — a football final
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. bowl — a dish
  23. clip — a video
  24. ground — the earth

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