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: cold · cabinet · court · bat · wind · rush · clip · rash

  1. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. What do you think of the new ________________?
  7. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  8. Don't do anything ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. That must've been a ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  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. rush — to hurry
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. cold — not warm
  4. bat — the animal
  5. clip — for paper
  6. cabinet — ministers
  7. rush — hurry
  8. rash — hasty
  9. cold — an illness
  10. court — for sport
  11. cabinet — ministers
  12. rash — a series
  13. court — of a king
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — moving air
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. cabinet — a cupboard
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. clip — a video
  21. rush — a thrill
  22. clip — to cut
  23. cold — the Cold War
  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