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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: hand · pitch · bat · cold · ground · stick · bark · clip

  1. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  19. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — the earth
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. clip — a video
  7. bark — to shout
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. bat — the animal
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. ground — a position
  14. cold — an illness
  15. clip — for paper
  16. ground — crushed
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. pitch — completely
  19. stick — a piece of wood
  20. hand — in cards
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. hand — help
  23. cold — not warm
  24. clip — to cut

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