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. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — to rip
  2. last — final
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. tear — from crying
  5. spring — of water
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. tear — from crying
  8. field — for sport
  9. cold — an illness
  10. bat — the animal
  11. race — the arms race
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — a coil
  14. race — a contest
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. chest — a box
  17. race — humankind
  18. cold — not warm
  19. last — finally
  20. chest — of your body
  21. field — a subject
  22. chest — of your body
  23. field — farmland
  24. last — to go on

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