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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: race · last · spell · prune · pitch · cold · capital · wound

  1. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — humankind
  2. prune — to trim
  3. capital — money
  4. capital — a city
  5. race — a contest
  6. last — final
  7. last — to go on
  8. spell — letters
  9. cold — an illness
  10. pitch — a sales talk
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. last — finally
  13. wound — an injury
  14. spell — a short time
  15. pitch — a sports field
  16. pitch — completely
  17. cold — not warm
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. wound — an injury
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. prune — to trim
  23. race — the arms race
  24. spell — magic

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