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 got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  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. hand — in cards
  2. clip — to cut
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. last — to go on
  5. last — finally
  6. net — in sport
  7. file — a line of people
  8. net — after costs
  9. wound — an injury
  10. tear — to rip
  11. hand — help
  12. tear — from crying
  13. wound — an injury
  14. capital — a city
  15. net — for catching
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. file — a document
  18. last — final
  19. file — a tool
  20. clip — a video
  21. tear — from crying
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. clip — for paper
  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