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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 120 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 · stock · band · coach · chest · swing · temple · bore

  1. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. David sat on the ________________.
  8. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  13. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. When was this ________________ built?
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — side of the head
  2. stock — shares
  3. coach — pulled by horses
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. cold — an illness
  6. band — a ring
  7. swing — to play on
  8. temple — a place of worship
  9. chest — of your body
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. bore — gave birth
  13. bore — to drill
  14. band — a music group
  15. bore — to tire
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. chest — a box
  19. cold — not warm
  20. temple — a place of worship
  21. stock — goods
  22. chest — of your body
  23. swing — in golf
  24. swing — music

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