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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.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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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: cold · swing · leaves · race · drill · bore · coach · band

  1. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  2. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  3. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. David sat on the ________________.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  12. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  19. Have you met the new head ________________?
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. bore — gave birth
  2. swing — in golf
  3. bore — to tire
  4. drill — a practice
  5. cold — not warm
  6. leaves — to go away
  7. cold — an illness
  8. race — a contest
  9. swing — to play on
  10. race — the arms race
  11. coach — pulled by horses
  12. bore — to drill
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. leaves — lets stay
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. race — humankind
  17. drill — the tool
  18. leaves — of a tree
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. band — a music group
  21. swing — music
  22. band — a ring
  23. drill — army training
  24. cold — the Cold War

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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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