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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 120 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: chest · kick · capital · straw · pitch · pop · degree · coach

  1. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  14. We're almost out of ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Have you met the new head ________________?
  18. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. capital — a city
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. chest — a box
  6. chest — of your body
  7. capital — money
  8. kick — in football
  9. degree — temperature
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. pop — to visit
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. pitch — a sports field
  14. pop — soda
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. degree — from a university
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. pitch — a sales talk
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. kick — with a leg
  21. degree — an amount
  22. pitch — completely
  23. pop — music
  24. chest — of your body

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