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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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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: wind · prune · capital · cold · pop · wax · bark · craft

  1. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  23. You don't need to ________________ round.
  24. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. capital — money
  5. capital — a city
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. bark — to shout
  8. cold — not warm
  9. wind — moving air
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. wind — moving air
  12. craft — a handicraft
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. craft — boats
  15. cold — an illness
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. pop — soda
  18. pop — music
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. prune — to trim
  21. prune — to trim
  22. wax — to grow
  23. pop — to visit
  24. craft — a skill

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