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: shower · season · cold · court · bark · chest · bat · wave

  1. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. cold — not warm
  5. season — of the year
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. cold — an illness
  8. shower — to wash
  9. chest — a box
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. wave — with your hand
  12. court — for sport
  13. court — of law
  14. wave — a sudden rise
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. wave — of the sea
  17. bat — the animal
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. season — in sport
  20. bark — to shout
  21. shower — rain
  22. chest — of your body
  23. chest — of your body
  24. court — of a king

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