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

Word bank: stem · perch · scale · degree · hand · club · wind · cold

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  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. degree — an amount
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. club — for dancing
  4. club — for golf
  5. hand — help
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — not warm
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. wind — moving air
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. perch — the fish
  12. scale — in music
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. stem — to come from
  15. degree — from a university
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. degree — temperature
  18. scale — size or range
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. club — a group
  21. hand — in cards
  22. wind — moving air
  23. cold — the Cold War
  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