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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  19. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  20. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. cold — not warm
  3. band — a ring
  4. current — happening now
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. stock — shares
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. band — a music group
  9. file — a tool
  10. land — ground
  11. cold — an illness
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. stock — goods
  14. drill — a practice
  15. land — to come down
  16. current — electric
  17. file — a line of people
  18. current — of water
  19. drill — the tool
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. file — a document
  22. drill — army training
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. cold — the Cold War

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