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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: row · squash · saw · bat · pitch · sharp · land · content

  1. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. He works in a ________________ mill.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. This knife is not ________________ enough.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — to crush
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. pitch — completely
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. bat — the animal
  6. squash — the sport
  7. sharp — clever
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. content — happy
  10. content — the amount
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. land — ground
  13. pitch — a sports field
  14. land — a country
  15. land — to come down
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. row — to paddle
  20. row — a line
  21. saw — the tool
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. saw — the tool
  24. sharp — with an edge

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