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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  21. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  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. capital — a big letter
  2. cold — not warm
  3. tear — from crying
  4. fine — all right
  5. march — music
  6. tear — to rip
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. squash — the sport
  9. march — the month
  10. snap — to click
  11. cold — an illness
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. drill — the tool
  14. drill — a practice
  15. march — the month
  16. squash — to crush
  17. tear — from crying
  18. fine — high quality
  19. drill — army training
  20. fine — a penalty
  21. squash — the vegetable
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. capital — a city
  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