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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: race · fall · bat · ground · capital · chair · prune · straw

  1. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — the arms race
  2. chair — a leader
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. ground — crushed
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. fall — to drop
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. prune — to trim
  10. race — a contest
  11. prune — to trim
  12. ground — the earth
  13. bat — the animal
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. capital — a city
  16. fall — the season
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. fall — to drop
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. capital — money
  23. race — humankind
  24. ground — a position

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