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. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  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. present — there
  2. mate — a partner
  3. present — a gift
  4. degree — an amount
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. scale — in music
  7. scale — size or range
  8. mate — a friend
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. mate — to breed
  11. march — music
  12. march — the month
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. stem — of a plant
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. mine — for digging
  18. degree — from a university
  19. degree — temperature
  20. march — the month
  21. present — the time now
  22. stem — to come from
  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