The Complete Dolch Sight Words List by Age (All 220 Words)

If you have gone looking for "the" sight words list, this is the one most schools mean: the Dolch list, compiled in the 1930s by the reading researcher Edward Dolch from the words that appear most often in children's books. It holds 220 words, split into five stages, and it has stayed useful for nearly a century for a simple reason — these really are the words young readers meet constantly, on almost every page they will ever read.

Below is the complete list, stage by stage, with the ages when each list typically comes into play. Two things to hold onto as you read: the stages are school-grade labels, not deadlines, and no word repeats across the five lists — once a word is learned, it is banked.

Pre-primer: the first 40 words (typically ages 3 to 5)

These are the gentlest, most frequent words — the ones a pre-reader can start recognizing before kindergarten: a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you.

Notice how many are words a small child already says all day — me, my, go, up, look. That is the point. The list starts where the child already is.

Primer: 52 words (typically ages 5 to 6)

Usually tackled during kindergarten, alongside beginning reading: all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes.

First grade: 41 words (typically ages 6 to 7)

The connecting words that make sentences flow: after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, going, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when.

Second grade: 46 words (typically ages 7 to 8)

Longer and more abstract, including the trickiest spellings on the whole list: always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don't, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your.

Third grade: the last 41 words (typically ages 8 to 9)

The final stage, usually finished by age nine or so: about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm.

That completes all 220. (Dolch also compiled a separate list of 95 common nouns — mama, ball, dog, and so on — but when schools say "the Dolch words," they almost always mean the 220 above.)

How to actually use this list

Do not print all 220 and start drilling. A child meets these lists over roughly five years, a stage at a time, a few words at a time. Pick the list that matches where your child is, work on a small handful of words until they are instant, and fold in new ones as old ones stick. Five happy minutes a day beats a long session, and writing or tracing a word while saying it aloud makes it stick far faster than looking at it ever will.

And if you are wondering what sight words are in the first place, or why teachers make such a fuss over them, we cover that in our companion guide to sight words — the short version is that these words appear so often that knowing them instantly frees a child's attention for the rest of the sentence.

Why this matters for the books you choose

The pre-primer list is where every child starts, which is why our Trace & Learn workbook for ages 5–7 includes all 40 pre-primer words — each one traced on proper handwriting guidelines after the alphabet and numbers have laid the groundwork, so the hand learns the words the eyes are about to meet everywhere.

If you would like to see the format first, our free preview pack includes sample pages to print and trace together.