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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  4. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  7. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. degree — from a university
  3. scale — in music
  4. root — of a plant
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. calf — a young animal
  7. root — of a word
  8. game — wild animals
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. spring — the season
  12. clip — for paper
  13. degree — temperature
  14. spring — of water
  15. clip — to cut
  16. calf — a young animal
  17. spring — a coil
  18. root — the cause
  19. calf — of the leg
  20. shower — rain
  21. degree — an amount
  22. clip — a video
  23. game — a match
  24. scale — size or range

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