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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: chest · arm · fork · pitch · bat · degree · capital · roll

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. My father caught me by the ________________.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. We're on a ________________ here.
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  14. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. capital — money
  3. arm — part of the body
  4. roll — a list
  5. degree — temperature
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. chest — of your body
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. roll — on a roll
  10. pitch — completely
  11. chest — a box
  12. degree — from a university
  13. arm — part of the body
  14. fork — a garden tool
  15. bat — the animal
  16. roll — a cake
  17. chest — of your body
  18. arm — a part of something
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. fork — in a road
  21. degree — an amount
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. capital — a big letter

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