ClueBy
TodayArchiveWord list

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 116 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.

Make a worksheet

Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
YesNo
↻ New worksheet

Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. hand — help
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. degree — from a university
  6. shower — to wash
  7. cold — not warm
  8. degree — an amount
  9. bat — the animal
  10. wind — moving air
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. cold — an illness
  13. hand — in cards
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. capital — a city
  16. degree — temperature
  17. shower — rain
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. chair — a leader
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. wind — moving air
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. capital — money

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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