2nd Grade spelling
2nd Grade Compound Words
Compound word spelling list: two short words joined, like weekend, bedroom, homework and football. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: Two short words joined to make one, such as sun and set in sunset.
A compound word is made by joining two whole words. Weekend is week plus end, bedroom is bed plus room, and homework is home plus work. In most compounds the spelling of each part stays the same, so students who can spell the two small words can spell the long one. That makes compounds a good bridge from one-syllable lists to longer words.
Every word here is two syllables, made of two one-syllable words that are each a real word. The list includes football, baseball, airport, weekend, bathroom, homework, outside, sometime and railroad. Some compounds, like network, keyboard and feedback, show how new words are still being built from old ones. We chose the words by looking for splits where both halves are common words, so each compound can be broken into parts students already know. Closed compounds like these are written as a single word, with no space or hyphen.
30 entries. Our solver needed 1.6 wrong guesses on average: 14 easy, 16 medium and 0 hard. The toughest is playoff (4 misses), the quickest someone (0).
- someone Easy · 0
- outside Medium · 2
- football Medium · 3
- network Medium · 2
- weekend Easy · 1
- airport Easy · 1
- aircraft Easy · 1
- somewhat Easy · 1
- baseball Easy · 1
- bathroom Medium · 2
- somehow Medium · 2
- bedroom Medium · 2
- output Medium · 2
- downtown Medium · 3
- nowhere Easy · 1
- lifetime Easy · 0
- outcome Medium · 2
- wildlife Easy · 0
- feedback Easy · 1
- railroad Medium · 2
- outdoor Medium · 3
- outfit Medium · 2
- sometime Easy · 0
- workshop Medium · 3
- teenage Easy · 0
- homework Easy · 1
- playoff Medium · 4
- deadline Easy · 1
- artwork Medium · 2
- keyboard Medium · 2
Words worth a closer look
- somewhatSome plus what. The meaning has little to do with either part now, which makes it a good example of how compounds drift.
- networkNet plus work. A newer compound that students may see on devices.
- playoffPlay plus off. Sports vocabulary, so it often appeals to students who like games.
- teenageTeen plus age. The e in teen is easy to leave out.
- railroadRail plus road, each of which appears on other lists on this site.
Teaching it
The most common mistake is putting a space in the middle, or hyphenating, so that homework becomes home work. Teach students to say the two parts, then write them together with no gap. Sometimes the meaning of the compound drifts from its parts, as in somewhat, but the spelling still follows the pieces.
Hangman gives a nice challenge: tell players the word is made of two smaller words, then let them guess. Compounds are longer than most beginner words, which makes them easier to solve than short ones, and children often feel pleased by their quick wins. Afterward, ask each student to cut one word on the printable into two parts and draw a picture of each part.
Print a 2nd Grade Compound Hangman worksheet
Eight puzzles on one US Letter page, with a clue, letter blanks, an empty frame to draw in, an alphabet strip to cross off and circles to count misses. Page two is the answer key.
Need another sheet?
Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.
Keep going
- 2nd Grade AI WordsSpelling words with the ai vowel team for long a, like rain, mail and paint. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.
- 2nd Grade AY WordsSpelling words ending in ay, such as day, play, away and birthday. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.
- 2nd Grade EE WordsSpelling words with ee for the long e sound, including see, need, week and queen. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.
- 2nd Grade EA WordsSpelling words where ea makes the long e sound, like team, meat, steam and beach. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.
- 2nd Grade OA WordsSpelling words with oa for the long o sound, such as boat, coat, road and soap. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.
- 2nd Grade IGH WordsSpelling words with igh for the long i sound, like night, light, high and bright. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.