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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. current — electric
  3. net — for catching
  4. spring — a coil
  5. degree — from a university
  6. content — happy
  7. content — the amount
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. current — of water
  10. spring — of water
  11. net — in sport
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. degree — temperature
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. net — after costs
  16. cell — a phone
  17. spring — the season
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. current — happening now
  20. snap — to click
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. cell — in biology
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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