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. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  2. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  6. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  12. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  13. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  14. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  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. court — of a king
  2. present — the time now
  3. hand — in cards
  4. cold — not warm
  5. present — there
  6. wave — a sudden rise
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. game — a match
  9. court — for sport
  10. file — a tool
  11. present — a gift
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. wave — of the sea
  14. wave — with your hand
  15. cold — an illness
  16. nail — on a finger
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. hand — help
  20. file — a line of people
  21. file — a document
  22. court — of law
  23. game — wild animals
  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