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 116 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: rest · hand · mine · wound · club · file · field · fall

  1. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. fall — the season
  3. rest — what's left
  4. fall — to drop
  5. rest — what's left
  6. wound — an injury
  7. club — for golf
  8. fall — to drop
  9. wound — an injury
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. hand — in cards
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. club — a group
  14. file — a line of people
  15. mine — for digging
  16. hand — help
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. field — for sport
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. field — farmland
  21. rest — a break
  22. field — a subject
  23. file — a document
  24. file — a tool

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