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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: clip · march · pitch · bat · band · chip · shower · drill

  1. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — completely
  2. clip — a video
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. drill — the tool
  5. march — music
  6. clip — for paper
  7. band — a ring
  8. chip — in a computer
  9. shower — rain
  10. chip — to eat
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. clip — to cut
  14. drill — army training
  15. bat — the animal
  16. band — a music group
  17. pitch — a sports field
  18. shower — to wash
  19. chip — for betting
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. march — the month
  22. march — the month
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. drill — a practice

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