Guide · word lists
Dolch vs Fry Sight Words
Dolch is a list of 220 service words plus 95 nouns, grouped by level from pre-primer to 3rd grade. Fry is a longer list of 1,000 words, in batches of 100, ordered by how often they appear. They share many words. If your school uses one, use that.
The Dolch list
Edward Dolch published his service words in 1936, drawing on the reading books of the time. Leaving out nouns kept the list to the small words that hold sentences together, grouped into five levels for younger readers. It's short enough for a child to finish in the early grades.
The Fry list
Edward Fry published his Instant Words in the 1950s and later updated them. The list runs to 1,000 words, including nouns, and is ordered by frequency, so the first 100 are the very commonest. Because it goes much further, it's useful for older readers too.
Which one to choose
For young children, the choice matters less than people think, because the first few hundred words of each list overlap heavily. Use your school's list if it has one, so home and class match. If it doesn't, Dolch's levels are a tidy place to start. Right now, Wordburrow covers the Dolch lists.
How to do it with Wordburrow
- Check whether your child's school uses a list.
- If it's Dolch, open the Dolch lists and choose a level.
- If it's anything else, paste it into the list maker.
- Print a checklist to see where to begin.
Try it now: free, no signup
Free to play · no signup · works on phones, tablets and computers
Questions people ask
Does Wordburrow have Fry words?
Not yet. You can paste any Fry words into the list maker and play them today.
Are the Dolch words out of date?
Some nouns feel old-fashioned, but the service words are still some of the commonest in English.
An app is on the way
We're building a Wordburrow app for iPhone. The plan is everything you can play here, plus offline play and a parent view of the words that have stuck. It isn't out yet. The whole game is free here in the meantime.
Coming soon on theApp Store