2nd Grade spelling
2nd Grade IGH Words
Spelling 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.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: Words where igh spells the long i sound and the gh is silent.
The three letters igh spell the long i sound, the one in the word i. In night, light, high and bright the gh is silent. These are leftovers from old English, when the gh really was pronounced, and they survive in the spelling. Students need not know that history, but it explains why the letters look so strange.
Most igh words end in ght: right, might, fight, tight, sight. A handful, such as high, sigh and thigh, end after the h. The list also includes compounds like midnight, daylight, sunlight and twilight, which let students read a familiar word inside a longer one. Alright is on the list because it is common in everyday writing, though many dictionaries and teachers prefer all right, so it is worth deciding in your classroom which spelling you accept.
28 entries. Our solver needed 4.3 wrong guesses on average: 3 easy, 12 medium and 13 hard. The toughest is high (9 misses), the quickest eyesight (0).
- right Hard · 6
- high Hard · 9
- might Hard · 8
- night Hard · 5
- light Hard · 7
- fight Hard · 9
- tonight Medium · 3
- bright Hard · 6
- tight Hard · 5
- sight Medium · 3
- height Medium · 3
- midnight Easy · 1
- knight Hard · 6
- slight Medium · 3
- insight Easy · 1
- delight Medium · 2
- sigh Hard · 5
- sunlight Medium · 3
- daylight Medium · 2
- outright Medium · 2
- twilight Medium · 2
- upright Medium · 4
- thigh Hard · 6
- plight Hard · 6
- fright Medium · 4
- eyesight Easy · 0
- blight Hard · 7
- alight Medium · 2
Words worth a closer look
- heightOne of the few words here with a different spelling inside, eigh rather than igh. It sounds like long i, but many students write hight.
- sighEnds right after the h, so no t. Players who guess t early find nothing.
- twilightTwi means two, as in twice and twin, which is a nice link to word parts.
- thighStarts with th and ends with igh, so the h appears twice. Students often leave out one of them.
Teaching it
Teach igh as a chunk, not as three letters. Have students write the word night, circle igh, and read it back with the chunk underlined. Then change the first letter to make light, fight, sight. The common mistake is spelling the long i with a y or with a silent e, writing nite or lite. Those spellings appear on signs and in advertising, so students see them often.
Hangman suits this pattern because the ght ending is so predictable: once players find the g, h and t, they only need the opening. Reveal that every word has igh and see how quickly the class can place those letters. The printable works best as a word-building activity, with igh at the center and the letters around it.
Print a 2nd Grade IGH 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 AR WordsSpelling words with ar for the sound in car, like park, farm, dark and shark. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.