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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: rock · bat · chest · current · pitch · fall · land · game

  1. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  12. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  13. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  14. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — to move gently
  2. rock — music
  3. game — wild animals
  4. fall — to drop
  5. land — to come down
  6. rock — a stone
  7. chest — of your body
  8. chest — of your body
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. pitch — completely
  12. fall — to drop
  13. current — happening now
  14. current — of water
  15. game — a match
  16. current — electric
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. land — a country
  19. bat — the animal
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. land — ground
  22. chest — a box
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. fall — the season

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