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 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.

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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. spell — magic
  3. clip — for paper
  4. spell — letters
  5. wound — an injury
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — of your body
  8. row — a line
  9. row — to paddle
  10. chest — a box
  11. hand — help
  12. clip — to cut
  13. craft — a handicraft
  14. wound — an injury
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. wake — a trail
  18. spell — a short time
  19. craft — boats
  20. clip — a video
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. craft — a skill
  23. hand — in cards
  24. wake — before a funeral

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