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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: chest · fan · pitch · content · game · snap · bowl · cold

  1. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sports field
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. game — a match
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. chest — of your body
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. game — wild animals
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. content — happy
  15. content — the amount
  16. chest — of your body
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. bowl — a dish
  19. pitch — completely
  20. chest — a box
  21. pitch — a sales talk
  22. snap — to click
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — an illness

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