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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: kick · kid · prune · capital · tear · pitch

  1. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. prune — to trim
  3. tear — from crying
  4. kick — in football
  5. kid — child
  6. capital — money
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. tear — to rip
  10. kick — a thrill
  11. tear — from crying
  12. capital — a city
  13. pitch — a sports field
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. pitch — completely
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. kid — to tease
  18. kick — with a leg

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