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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: file · pitch · capital · mouse · pound · game · toast · wound

  1. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  13. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  20. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  21. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. toast — the most admired
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. wound — an injury
  5. game — a match
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. capital — money
  9. pitch — completely
  10. capital — a city
  11. wound — an injury
  12. mouse — the animal
  13. pound — a weight
  14. game — wild animals
  15. pitch — a sales talk
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. toast — a drink to someone
  18. file — a line of people
  19. pitch — a sports field
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. mouse — for a computer
  22. file — a document
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. file — a tool

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