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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. race — a contest
  3. firm — a company
  4. cold — not warm
  5. firm — decided
  6. spring — of water
  7. prune — to trim
  8. firm — steady
  9. race — the arms race
  10. clip — a video
  11. race — humankind
  12. clip — to cut
  13. spring — a coil
  14. clip — for paper
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. row — a line
  18. prune — to trim
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. row — to paddle
  21. cold — an illness
  22. content — the amount
  23. spring — the season
  24. cold — the Cold War

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