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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: trunk · land · field · cold · race · branch · chair · bass

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  13. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. bass — low music
  3. land — a country
  4. branch — a division
  5. field — a subject
  6. race — humankind
  7. field — farmland
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. trunk — of a tree
  13. branch — of a tree
  14. race — a contest
  15. field — for sport
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. trunk — of a car
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. chair — a leader
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. trunk — of an elephant
  22. race — the arms race
  23. land — to come down
  24. bass — the fish

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