Word lists for kindergarten to grade 3
Each word has its syllable count and an estimated grade. Open a list to see its words, then make a word search, spelling sheet or phonics worksheet from it.
Common words
Everyday words beyond the Dolch lists, from open frequency lists, grouped from most to least common.
Adapted from Wiktionary's contemporary fiction frequency list and Simple English Wikipedia's list of 1000 basic words, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Everyday words 1 (most common) (149)
- Everyday words 2 (432)
- Everyday words 3 (267)
Parts of speech
Lists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and pronouns for grammar practice.
- Nouns (K–1) (24)
- Nouns (2–3) (24)
- Verbs (K–1) (24)
- Verbs (2–3) (24)
- Adjectives (K–1) (24)
- Adjectives (2–3) (24)
- Adverbs (2–3) (23)
- Prepositions (K–2) (22)
- Pronouns (1–2) (19)
Phonics
Phonics lists group words by spelling pattern: short vowels, long vowels, digraphs, blends, vowel teams, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, consonant patterns and word families.
- Short a (CVC) (33)
- Short e (CVC) (22)
- Short i (CVC) (32)
- Short o (CVC) (27)
- Short u (CVC) (29)
- Digraph sh (25)
- Digraph ch (26)
- Digraph th (19)
- Digraph wh (15)
- Long a (a_e) (26)
- Long i (i_e) (24)
- Long o (o_e) (21)
- Vowel teams (ai, ea, oa, ee) (28)
- L blends (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl) (22)
- R blends (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr) (23)
- S blends (sk, sm, sn, sp, st, sw) (22)
- R-controlled vowels (ar, or, ir, ur, er) (30)
- Word family -at (11)
- Word family -an (11)
- Word family -ig (8)
- Word family -op (11)
- Word family -ug (11)
- Word family -ack (11)
- Word family -ing (10)
- Word family -ight (10)
- Word family -ook (9)
- Compound words (31)
- Long a (ai) (23)
- Long a (ay) (21)
- Long a (eigh, ey, ei) (18)
- Long e (ee) (24)
- Long e (ea) (25)
- Long e (y at the end) (26)
- Long e (ie, ey) (21)
- Long i (igh) (18)
- Long i (y) (16)
- Long i (ie) (15)
- Long i (i alone) (18)
- Long o (oa) (22)
- Long o (ow) (20)
- Long o (oe) (10)
- Long o (o alone) (26)
- Long u (ue) (12)
- Long u (ew) (15)
- Long u (u_e) (19)
- oo as in moon (23)
- oo as in book (15)
- oi (coin, oil) (17)
- oy (toy, boy) (15)
- ou (out, cloud) (25)
- ow (cow, now) (27)
- aw and au (saw, haul) (23)
- ar (car, star) (29)
- or (for, corn) (23)
- er, ir, ur (her, bird, fur) (33)
- ck (duck, clock) (26)
- tch (catch, match) (21)
- dge (bridge, badge) (19)
- ng (ring, king) (26)
- nk (bank, sink) (24)
- kn (knee, knife) (17)
- wr (write, wrong) (18)
- mb (lamb, comb) (13)
- Hard c (cat, cup) (26)
- Soft c (city, face) (33)
- Hard g (go, goat) (29)
- Soft g (gem, giant) (27)
- ph (phone, photo) (19)
- End blends (nd, nt) (25)
- End blends (st, sk) (35)
- End blends (lt, ld, lk, lp) (22)
- End blends (mp, ft, ct, pt) (28)
- Three-letter blends (str, spr, scr, spl) (25)
Seasons & holidays
Seasonal and holiday lists for classroom activities.
- Spring (23)
- Summer (22)
- Fall (22)
- Winter (22)
- Halloween (22)
- Thanksgiving (20)
- Winter holidays (22)
- Valentine's Day (18)
- St. Patrick's Day (11)
Sight words (Dolch)
Sight words are common words children learn to recognize by sight. These lists follow the Dolch sight word lists (pre-primer to third grade, plus nouns).
- Dolch Pre-Primer (40)
- Dolch Primer (52)
- Dolch First Grade (41)
- Dolch Second Grade (46)
- Dolch Third Grade (41)
- Dolch Nouns (95)
Themes
Theme lists gather picture-vocabulary words by topic, such as animals, food, school, weather and community.
- Farm animals & things (17)
- Ocean animals (18)
- Zoo & jungle animals (20)
- Pets (17)
- Insects & bugs (17)
- Birds (18)
- Fruits (18)
- Vegetables (17)
- Colors (16)
- Shapes (16)
- Number words (20)
- Days of the week (11)
- Months of the year (12)
- Body parts (20)
- Family (15)
- Weather (19)
- School (21)
- Transportation (19)
- Community helpers (17)
- Feelings (19)
- Space (20)
- Five senses (18)
- Plants (20)
- Habitats (17)
- Math words (24)
- Clothes (23)
- Home and rooms (24)
- Kitchen (20)
- Toys and games (18)
- Community places (19)
- Maps and geography (30)
- Money (22)
- Time (28)
- Sports (35)
- Science (34)
- Art and music (27)
- Dinosaurs (16)
- Measuring (27)
- Computers (23)
- Tools and building (18)
Word parts
Prefixes, suffixes, plurals, -ing and -ed endings, and irregular past tense.
- Prefix un- (24)
- Prefix re- (21)
- Prefix pre- (10)
- Prefix dis- (14)
- Prefix mis- (11)
- Suffix -ful (23)
- Suffix -less (18)
- Suffix -ly (24)
- Suffix -ness (17)
- Suffix -er (a person who) (19)
- Comparing with -er and -est (24)
- Adding -ing (14)
- Double the letter, then -ing (12)
- Drop the e, then -ing (12)
- -ed that sounds like t (10)
- -ed that sounds like d (10)
- -ed that sounds like id (12)
- Plurals with -s (15)
- Plurals with -es (15)
- Plurals with -ies (change y to i) (15)
- Plurals with -ves (change f to v) (12)
- Irregular plurals (12)
- Irregular past tense (45)
- Change y to i, then -ed (10)
Word study
Tricky words, homophones, contractions, compound words, multiple-meaning words and three-syllable words.