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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. This piece is in a major ________________.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  13. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  14. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  23. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. mate — a friend
  3. mate — to breed
  4. key — in music
  5. band — a ring
  6. tear — from crying
  7. cold — not warm
  8. tear — from crying
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. clip — to cut
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. wax — for sculpting
  13. arm — a part of something
  14. key — the most important part
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. cold — an illness
  17. clip — a video
  18. wax — to grow
  19. clip — for paper
  20. wax — in the ear
  21. tear — to rip
  22. arm — part of the body
  23. key — for a lock
  24. band — a music group

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