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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: court · pitch · tube · lean · bat · cold · root · clip

  1. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  21. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. root — of a plant
  4. court — of law
  5. court — for sport
  6. tube — a container
  7. lean — to bend
  8. clip — for paper
  9. tube — the underground
  10. pitch — a sales talk
  11. clip — a video
  12. lean — thin
  13. pitch — completely
  14. cold — an illness
  15. pitch — a sports field
  16. root — of a word
  17. court — of a king
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. cold — not warm
  20. lean — to rest against
  21. root — the cause
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. clip — to cut
  24. bat — the animal

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