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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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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: pitch · clip · jam · pit · cold · mine · march · kick

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  14. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  15. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. jam — to spread on bread
  4. mine — for digging
  5. clip — to cut
  6. clip — a video
  7. kick — in football
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. pit — in a race
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. march — the month
  13. jam — a tight spot
  14. pit — a hole
  15. pit — a fruit stone
  16. clip — for paper
  17. cold — an illness
  18. kick — with a leg
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. jam — in traffic
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. pitch — completely
  23. cold — not warm
  24. march — 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