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 116 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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. capital — a city
  3. net — for catching
  4. court — for sport
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. cold — an illness
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. court — of a king
  11. net — in sport
  12. pop — music
  13. court — of law
  14. bowl — a football final
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. pop — to visit
  17. mine — for digging
  18. pop — soda
  19. cold — not warm
  20. net — after costs
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. capital — money
  23. game — wild animals
  24. game — a match

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