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. False peace will not ________________.
  2. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  17. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. kick — in football
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. clip — for paper
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. last — final
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. bore — to drill
  10. clip — a video
  11. branch — a division
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — an illness
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. bore — gave birth
  17. kick — with a leg
  18. clip — to cut
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. last — finally
  21. bore — to tire
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. bat — the animal
  24. bat — for baseball

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