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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: cold · kick · saw · arm · capital · net · race · prune

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. My father caught me by the ________________.
  15. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. She's very handy with a ________________.
  18. He works in a ________________ mill.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  22. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  23. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. net — after costs
  3. race — the arms race
  4. prune — to trim
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. prune — to trim
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. race — a contest
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. capital — money
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. kick — a thrill
  16. net — for catching
  17. saw — the tool
  18. saw — the tool
  19. net — in sport
  20. race — humankind
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. arm — a part of something
  23. kick — in football
  24. cold — not warm

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