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 116 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 cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. tube — a container
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. band — a ring
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. bat — the animal
  8. cell — in biology
  9. wound — an injury
  10. cold — not warm
  11. tear — to rip
  12. cold — an illness
  13. present — there
  14. cell — a phone
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. present — a gift
  17. wound — an injury
  18. present — the time now
  19. tear — from crying
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. tube — the underground
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. band — a music group

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