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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: trunk · straw · coach · cold · swing · wake · band · saw

  1. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  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. saw — the tool
  2. trunk — of a car
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. swing — music
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. swing — in golf
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. cold — an illness
  10. band — a ring
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. swing — to play on
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. cold — not warm
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. saw — the tool
  18. band — a music group
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. coach — pulled by horses
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. wake — a trail
  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