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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 120 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: kid · capital · prune · temple · fan · chest · fall · perch

  1. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. When was this ________________ built?
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. kid — to tease
  3. chest — of your body
  4. prune — to trim
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. fall — the season
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. kid — child
  12. chest — a box
  13. temple — side of the head
  14. perch — the fish
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. capital — a city
  19. chest — of your body
  20. fall — to drop
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. prune — to trim
  23. capital — money
  24. fall — to drop

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