Word List Builder

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Quick start

Just what you need to know — a 30-second refresher.

1. Pick a word source in panel 1: the built-in list, your own pasted words, or both together. You can also paste a list of words to leave out (ones you’ve already used).
2. In panel 2, every sound starts switched on, so there’s nothing to select — instead, switch off the sounds you haven’t taught yet (the Show sounds through group row and the all / none links do this in bulk). Results are one-vowel words, shown only when their start, vowel, and ending are all still selected. A column left fully on means “any sound is fine there”; empty the start column for vowel-first words, the end column for words ending on the vowel.
3. Optionally narrow it in panel 3 by number of sounds or letter count.
4. Click any word to drop it; click again to bring it back. Then Copy list and paste it into Blending Practice or wherever you need it.

Glued sounds (ing, ank, all…) count as one sound — matching the boxes in Blending Practice — and appear as a lilac group in the middle column. Toggle Weld glued sounds off for one letter-sound per box.

Your choices are saved on this computer, so the page comes back the way you left it.

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How the Word List Builder works

This tool sifts a list of words down to just the ones that fit the sounds and shapes you’re teaching, so you can copy a clean set for practice. Here is what each panel does.

1 · Word source. Choose Built-in word list for a few hundred common and decodable words for early readers, My pasted words to filter a list you already have — one per line, or separated by spaces or commas — or Built-in + mine to filter the built-in list and your own pasted words together. Inappropriate words are screened out automatically. Each box holds about 1,500 words — far more than a lesson needs — and a longer paste is cut off at that point. The Remove these words box drops any words you list from the results — handy for ones you’ve already used and don’t want to repeat — and it works whichever source you pick.

2 · Sounds — start, middle & end. Every sound starts switched on, so the job here is to switch off what you haven’t taught yet — not to hunt for things to select. Each column holds the spellings that can appear in that position: beginning consonants, digraphs, and blends, the vowel in the middle (short vowels, magic e, vowel teams, the igh trigraph, and r-controlled vowels), and the ending consonants, digraphs, trigraphs (tch, dge), doubles, and blends. Every result is a one-vowel word — one beginning, one vowel, one ending — so a word shows only when all three of its parts use sounds you’ve left selected.

Each column works three ways:

• Fully selected (the default) — that position is unrestricted; any sound is allowed there.
• Some selected — only words using one of those sounds in that position appear.
• Switched fully off — emptying the start column gives words that begin with the vowel, with no opening consonant (at, eat, oak); emptying the end column gives words that end on the vowel, with no closing consonant (he, day, cow). Emptying the vowel column just gives an empty list — every word needs a vowel.

Because every match has a single vowel, multi-syllable words like rabbit appear only while all sounds are still selected — or when you filter by number of sounds or length alone in panel 3. Switching any sound off limits the list to one-vowel words. Use the all / none links — next to a column’s title for the whole column, or above a group for just that group — or the two buttons below the grid, to move quickly.

Digraphs, trigraphs & doubles. A digraph is two letters for one sound (sh, ch, ck); a trigraph is three (igh, tch, dge); doubles are repeated letters (ll, ss). The tool counts each of these as a single sound, so catch is three sounds: c · a · tch.

Glued / welded sounds. In words like king, bank, and ball the vowel is “glued” to what follows and is taught as one chunk. With Weld glued sounds on (the default), each counts as a single sound — king is two sounds (k · ing), matching the boxes in Blending Practice — and the rimes appear as a Glued / welded group in the middle column, where they act as the word’s vowel (tinted lilac). So band reads b · an · d: a start, the glued vowel, an ending. Turn the toggle off to go back to one letter-sound per box (k · i · ng), and the glued group disappears. The ng/nk families always weld; all/am/an weld only when a consonant follows, so name and shallow stay unwelded.

Magic e. cake counts as three sounds, c · a_e · k: the split vowel a_e is one sound, and the silent e belongs to it. The Magic e chips (a_e … u_e) gate these words. Only the strict pattern counts — one vowel, one consonant, then e — so house and paste are not magic e, and neither is a vowel before r (care, here). Exceptions such as have and come still get the magic-e split; watch for those yourself.

Two-sound teams. oo, ow, and ea each spell two common sounds, so each has two chips: oo (moon) / oo (book), ow (cow) / ow (snow), ea (bead) / ea (bread). Spelling alone can’t tell them apart, so the tool sorts words by a short list of second-sound words (book, snow, bread …) and gives everything else the first sound.

Blends. A blend is two or three consonants whose sounds you still hear separately (bl, str at the start; nd, mp at the end) — unlike a digraph, each letter keeps its own sound. Picking a blend matches words with that exact cluster: choosing bl gives blot and black, not every b- or l- word. Because each consonant still counts as its own sound, stamp is five sounds: s · t · a · m · p. The Show sounds through group quick-buttons cover single letter-sounds only — reach for the blend chips (or Select all sounds) when you want blends.

3 · Narrow it down. Optionally limit by number of sounds (the same as boxes in Blending Practice) or by fewest / most letters. The number-of-sounds buttons let you pick more than one — click 3 and 4 to get three- and four-sound words together; Any clears them back to no limit. Type 0 in a letter box to clear it back to any.

4 · Results. Vowel sounds are tinted (glued rimes in lilac). Click a word to drop it from the list; click it again, or use Restore all, to bring dropped words back. Copy list copies every matching word except the ones you’ve dropped, one per line. A very large result set shows only the first 2,000 words here to keep the page responsive — Copy list still copies them all.

Everything is remembered on this computer. Use Clear saved settings at the bottom to wipe your choices and start fresh. Copy settings (next to it) copies every choice as a block of text you can paste into a document — handy for keeping a record per student, or for moving a set-up to another computer. Paste settings reads that text back in and applies it.