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: date · bound · capital · shower · swing · bass · court · degree

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  19. That was ________________ to happen.
  20. David sat on the ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. capital — money
  3. degree — from a university
  4. swing — music
  5. court — for sport
  6. court — of law
  7. capital — a city
  8. bass — the fish
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. bass — low music
  11. shower — rain
  12. date — the fruit
  13. court — of a king
  14. bound — obliged
  15. degree — temperature
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. swing — in golf
  18. bass — the instrument
  19. bound — certain
  20. swing — to play on
  21. shower — to wash
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. bound — tied together
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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