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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: pitch · squash · wind · season · track · clip · last · prune

  1. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. Did you ________________ the meat?
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  21. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  24. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. track — a path
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. last — to go on
  5. track — a song
  6. squash — to crush
  7. season — in sport
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. wind — moving air
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. season — of the year
  12. wind — moving air
  13. season — to add flavour
  14. prune — to trim
  15. clip — for paper
  16. squash — the sport
  17. clip — to cut
  18. prune — to trim
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. pitch — a sports field
  21. pitch — completely
  22. clip — a video
  23. track — to keep track
  24. last — final

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