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: game · last · cold · kick · band · mine · content · stem

  1. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. stem — of a plant
  3. content — happy
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. last — to go on
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. game — a match
  8. kick — in football
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. band — a music group
  11. last — final
  12. band — a ring
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. mine — for digging
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. cold — not warm
  17. stem — to come from
  18. cold — an illness
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. last — finally
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. content — the amount

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