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. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  2. The ________________ went through the wall.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  5. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — on a finger
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. pit — in a race
  5. nail — for a hammer
  6. chair — a leader
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. dip — to sink
  10. bat — the animal
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. file — a tool
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. pit — a fruit stone
  15. file — a line of people
  16. file — a document
  17. dip — a sauce
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. stem — to come from
  20. cold — an illness
  21. dip — to dunk
  22. cold — not warm
  23. pit — a hole
  24. stem — of a plant

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