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. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of a king
  2. squash — the sport
  3. file — a line of people
  4. net — in sport
  5. net — after costs
  6. wind — moving air
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. file — a document
  9. field — farmland
  10. net — for catching
  11. wind — moving air
  12. shower — to wash
  13. shower — rain
  14. field — a subject
  15. file — a tool
  16. field — for sport
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. court — for sport
  20. content — happy
  21. squash — the vegetable
  22. content — the amount
  23. squash — to crush
  24. court — of law

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