Shhh… It’s a Silent Letters Word List!

Silent letters are letters that are not pronounced when you say a word. This means that you cannot hear the letter making a sound within the word. More than 60% of English words have silent letters in them!

This list of 50 words containing silent letters has been compiled to assist you in implementing your phonics program in your classroom. It includes words containing the following silent letters:

• k (as in knee)
• h (as in ghost)
• t (as in listen)
• w (as in wrist)
• g (as in gnat)
• b (as in crumb)
• d (as in edge).

Multiple Applications for This Silent Letters Word List

This list of words containing silent letters can be used in numerous ways to support the diverse needs of your learners during your literacy sessions. Here are some of our suggestions:

Whole-class instruction

Project the word list on your interactive whiteboard. Read each word aloud. Have the students identify and highlight the letter that is silent in each word. Challenge the students to identify more words that contain this silent letter.

Individual practice

Send the lists home so your students can revise decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) the silent letter words on the list. Be sure to include only words containing letter-sound correspondences you have already addressed in class.

Formative assessment

Use the word list as a progress monitoring tool to keep track of your students’ phonemic awareness and to identify the silent letter concepts that require further review.

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