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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: capital · bat · pit · cold · prune · foot · file · wake

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  4. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. foot — a measure
  4. foot — part of the body
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. file — a document
  7. prune — to trim
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. prune — to trim
  11. capital — money
  12. pit — a fruit stone
  13. file — a tool
  14. foot — the bottom
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bat — the animal
  17. pit — in a race
  18. wake — a trail
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. file — a line of people
  23. pit — a hole
  24. bat — for baseball

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