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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: cap · pitch · row · mark · content · ground · game · wind

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  14. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  15. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. The players ran onto the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. content — happy
  3. wind — moving air
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. ground — crushed
  6. row — a line
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. wind — moving air
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. game — wild animals
  11. mark — to pay attention
  12. content — the amount
  13. pitch — completely
  14. cap — a lid
  15. mark — a trace
  16. ground — a position
  17. ground — the earth
  18. mark — a grade
  19. row — to paddle
  20. cap — a hat
  21. cap — of ice
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. pitch — a sports field

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