Free word lists

Spelling words by grade: kindergarten to 12th grade

288 spelling words, grouped by the grade they usually land in and by the pattern each one teaches. Every word comes with a definition written for a child to read, and every list is free — no account, no email, no download.

Looking for Dolch, Fry or the National Curriculum lists?

The 220 Dolch sight words, Fry’s first five hundred and the statutory spelling lists for Years 1 to 6 — printed in full, free, and one tap from being practised.

See the named lists →

Our lists, by grade

How to use a spelling list without it becoming a chore

Ten words, ten minutes, most nights. A short session on five evenings beats an hour on Thursday, and it is the only version a seven-year-old will agree to twice. Spelling is a memory task, and memory answers to spacing more than to effort.

Meet the word before drilling it. A child who knows what fragile means has something to hang the letters on. A child copying nine unfamiliar letters is doing a handwriting exercise. Every word in these lists has a definition for exactly that reason.

Say it, then write it. Hearing a word and spelling it from sound is what the Friday test asks for; recognising it on a page is an easier task wearing the same clothes.

Mix old words back in. A word spelled right three times in one sitting is short-term memory. Spelled right on three different days, it is learned — which is the bar SpellChirp uses before a word joins a child’s flock.

Group by pattern, not by alphabet. Words that share a rule — bossy r, silent e, two vowels walking — teach the rule as well as the words, and the rule is what transfers to the next list. These lists are grouped that way.

Practise these words, free

Every list here is built into SpellChirp’s Story Mode, where the words arrive inside an adventure your child picks — with audio, definitions and ten kinds of quiz. Or paste in the list your child’s teacher actually set.

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