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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. wind — moving air
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. kid — to tease
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. pit — a fruit stone
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. cold — an illness
  9. pit — in a race
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. bat — the animal
  12. capital — money
  13. pit — a hole
  14. capital — a city
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. cold — not warm
  17. branch — a division
  18. wind — moving air
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. stem — a stem cell
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. kid — child
  24. stem — of a plant

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