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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 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.

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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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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: pound · cold · band · rock · row · coach · straw · trunk

  1. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  8. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  11. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. Have you met the new head ________________?
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  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. band — a rubber band
  2. band — a music group
  3. row — a line
  4. band — a ring
  5. rock — a stone
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. rock — music
  8. rock — to move gently
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. pound — for dogs
  11. pound — a weight
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. row — to paddle
  14. cold — not warm
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. trunk — of a tree
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. pound — to hit hard
  23. cold — an illness
  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