Sight Words and Spelling Test

The complete Dolch 220 and 95 nouns plus Fry's first 300, as a readable list, printable flashcards or a randomised spelling test with an answer key.


These are the English Dolch and Fry lists, so the words stay in English whatever language the page is in. Leave How many blank for the whole list; a spelling test defaults to 20. Shuffled draws are repeatable from their seed.
List
Dolch pre-primer (40 words)
Words in list
40
Words shown
40
Longest word
little

Dolch pre-primer (40 words)

  1. a
  2. and
  3. away
  4. big
  5. blue
  6. can
  7. come
  8. down
  9. find
  10. for
  11. funny
  12. go
  13. help
  14. here
  15. I
  16. in
  17. is
  18. it
  19. jump
  20. little
  21. look
  22. make
  23. me
  24. my
  25. not
  26. one
  27. play
  28. red
  29. run
  30. said
  31. see
  32. the
  33. three
  34. to
  35. two
  36. up
  37. we
  38. where
  39. yellow
  40. you

What sight words are

Sight words are the words a child is taught to recognise instantly, without sounding them out. They earn that treatment for two reasons: they turn up constantly, and many of them do not obey the usual spelling rules, so decoding them letter by letter goes wrong. Said, come and one all sound nothing like they look. Because a small set of words makes up a large share of everything written, recognising them on sight frees a reader to spend their effort on the words that actually carry the meaning.

The Dolch list

Edward Dolch drew up his list in 1936 from the books children were actually reading, and it is still the one most schools use. It holds 220 service words split across five levels, from pre-primer to third grade, plus a separate list of 95 nouns. The service words are the connective tissue of English, the ones no picture can illustrate: the, of, and, but. The nouns are kept apart because they are learned differently, usually alongside a picture rather than by pure recognition. Every level here is complete and in its published order, so you can work through them in sequence.

The Fry list

Edward Fry updated the same idea in 1957 and revised it in 1980, ranking the 1000 most frequent words in school texts by how often they appear. This tool carries the first 300, grouped in hundreds, which is the stretch that matters most: the first hundred alone accounts for roughly half of everything in print. Fry ranks by frequency rather than by grade, so the two lists overlap heavily but are ordered differently. If your school works from Fry, use these; if it works from Dolch, use those. There is no need to do both.

Flashcards and spelling tests

Three views of the same words. Word list is plain readable text, good for a wall or a reading folder. Flashcards lays them out twelve to a page with dashed cut lines, and long words shrink to stay inside their card rather than crossing the cut. Spelling test gives a numbered sheet with a ruled line to write on, and ticking Fill in the answers prints the same sheet with the words already written, which is your answer key. Set the order to shuffled and note the seed, and you can hand out the test today and print the matching key next week.

Worth knowing

  • Dolch nouns are a separate list from the 220 service words, not part of them.
  • The sheets are measured in millimetres, so printing at 100% gives cards at their true size.
  • Paste your own words to build a test from this week's spellings instead of a standard list.
  • A shuffled draw is repeatable: the same seed and settings always give the same test.
  • Nothing is stored. The sheet is built on our server and the result is discarded once it is sent.

Frequently asked questions

A list of 220 high frequency words compiled by Edward Dolch in 1936, split into pre-primer, primer, first, second and third grade, plus 95 nouns held separately. They are meant to be recognised instantly rather than sounded out, because between them they make up a large share of ordinary text.

Dolch has 220 service words graded by school level and was drawn up in 1936. Fry ranks the 1000 most frequent words in school texts purely by frequency and dates from 1957. The lists overlap a great deal; the useful difference is the ordering. Use whichever your school works from rather than trying to cover both.

The Dolch levels are the usual guide: 40 words by the end of pre-kindergarten, 92 by the end of kindergarten, 133 by the end of first grade, 179 by second and all 220 by third. These are targets rather than rules, and children move at different speeds.

Yes. Choose Words I paste in and type them one per line, or separated by commas. Up to 300 words, each up to 24 letters. Then pick Spelling test as the view and you get a numbered sheet with writing lines.

Tick Fill in the answers and print again. You get the same numbered sheet with the words already written on the lines. If you shuffled the order, keep the seed shown under the form and enter it again, otherwise the key will not match the test.

Because Dolch and Fry are lists of English words. Translating them would produce a list of different words that nobody is asking for. The interface, the instructions and the printed sheet labels are translated; the words themselves stay as published, which is what makes them useful to anyone teaching or learning English.

Twelve, in three columns of four, with dashed lines to cut along. More words simply add pages. Words that would be too wide for a card are shrunk to fit, so nothing runs across a cut line.

The Dolch lists are complete: all 220 service words across the five levels, plus all 95 nouns. For Fry this tool carries the first 300 of the 1000, grouped in hundreds. The first 300 cover the great majority of running text, which is where sight word practice pays off most.

What are the Dolch and Fry sight words?

Sight words are recognised instantly rather than sounded out. This page holds the complete Dolch 220 service words across five levels, the 95 Dolch nouns and Fry's first 300, and turns any of them into printable flashcards or a spelling test with an answer key. You can paste your own words instead.