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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: clip · pitch · cold · pop · content · date · stick · net

  1. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  16. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Have you settled on a ________________?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  24. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sports field
  2. content — happy
  3. clip — for paper
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. pop — soda
  7. net — after costs
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. net — for catching
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. stick — a piece of wood
  12. net — in sport
  13. content — the amount
  14. clip — a video
  15. pitch — completely
  16. date — the fruit
  17. pop — to visit
  18. cold — not warm
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. cold — an illness
  21. clip — to cut
  22. pop — music
  23. stick — to attach or keep to
  24. stick — a piece of wood

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