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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 · mate · chest · patient · hand · capital · kid · swing

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Have you found your soul ________________?
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. capital — money
  3. capital — a city
  4. mate — a partner
  5. swing — to play on
  6. kid — to tease
  7. mate — to breed
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. hand — help
  10. hand — in cards
  11. patient — calm and waiting
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. mate — a friend
  16. kid — child
  17. chest — a box
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. swing — music
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. swing — in golf
  23. kick — in football
  24. chest — of your body

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