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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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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: bat · mine · pitch · toast · kid · chest · clip · stand

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  12. I can't ________________ this cold.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  18. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  19. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  20. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. chest — of your body
  3. stand — on your feet
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. bat — the animal
  6. toast — bread
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. stand — for spectators
  10. clip — for paper
  11. pitch — a sports field
  12. stand — to bear
  13. clip — a video
  14. chest — of your body
  15. clip — to cut
  16. kid — to tease
  17. pitch — a sales talk
  18. pitch — completely
  19. toast — a drink to someone
  20. toast — the most admired
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. chest — a box
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. mine — for digging

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