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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  9. What do you think of the new ________________?
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. face — to confront
  4. capital — money
  5. cold — not warm
  6. capital — a city
  7. file — a tool
  8. cabinet — ministers
  9. cabinet — ministers
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. field — farmland
  12. face — to point toward
  13. bark — to shout
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. face — part of the head
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. field — a subject
  20. file — a document
  21. cabinet — a cupboard
  22. field — for sport
  23. cold — an illness
  24. file — a line of people

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