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 120 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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. capital — a city
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. band — a music group
  6. spring — a coil
  7. bark — to shout
  8. cold — an illness
  9. prune — to trim
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. perch — the fish
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. band — a ring
  15. spring — the season
  16. content — the amount
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. capital — money
  19. spring — of water
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. content — happy
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. prune — to trim

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