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. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. What do you think of the new ________________?
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. present — there
  2. capital — money
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. net — for catching
  5. net — after costs
  6. cold — an illness
  7. stock — goods
  8. branch — a division
  9. cold — not warm
  10. clip — to cut
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. present — the time now
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. capital — a city
  15. cabinet — ministers
  16. clip — a video
  17. clip — for paper
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. present — a gift
  20. stock — shares
  21. net — in sport
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. cabinet — a cupboard

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