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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. That must've been a ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. prune — to trim
  3. rush — hurry
  4. row — a line
  5. game — a match
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. rush — a thrill
  8. land — a country
  9. wound — an injury
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. prune — to trim
  12. land — ground
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. game — wild animals
  18. rush — to hurry
  19. snap — to click
  20. row — to paddle
  21. mine — for digging
  22. land — to come down
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. wound — an injury

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