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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. The ________________ went through the wall.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. wax — to grow
  3. capital — a city
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. capital — money
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. clip — a video
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. clip — for paper
  12. ground — crushed
  13. wake — a trail
  14. shower — to wash
  15. nail — on a finger
  16. ground — a position
  17. wake — before a funeral
  18. ground — the earth
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. shower — rain
  21. wax — for sculpting
  22. kid — to tease
  23. clip — to cut
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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