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 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.

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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. He works in a ________________ mill.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. She's very handy with a ________________.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. kid — to tease
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. capital — money
  5. clip — a video
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. clip — for paper
  8. prune — to trim
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. spell — letters
  12. prune — to trim
  13. spell — magic
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. wind — moving air
  16. perch — the fish
  17. capital — a city
  18. saw — the tool
  19. kid — child
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. saw — the tool
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. wind — moving air
  24. spell — a short time

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