Sight words
Third Grade Sight Words
The 41 Dolch third-grade words, such as laugh, light, together and myself, with hangman, difficulty scores and a printable worksheet.
Read the word list
The third-grade level is the last of the Dolch service word lists. It has 41 words, and it overlaps least with our modern ranking, where 24 of the 41 appear in the top 500. Still, laugh, light, together, myself and never come up often in stories, so they earn their place.
These words show more of the quirks of English spelling. Laugh sounds like laf. Light has the silent gh. Eight, seven, six and ten are the number words, and warm and hot are the temperature words that sit beside cold at second grade.
By third grade most students can read many of these words and the question is spelling them. This is where hangman is useful, because it needs every letter and also gives immediate feedback on guesses.
41 entries. Our solver needed 5.3 wrong guesses on average: 6 easy, 10 medium and 25 hard. The toughest is cut (11 misses), the quickest better (1).
- about Medium · 2
- better Easy · 1
- bring Hard · 6
- carry Medium · 4
- clean Medium · 2
- cut Hard · 11
- done Hard · 6
- draw Hard · 8
- drink Hard · 5
- eight Medium · 2
- fall Hard · 7
- far Hard · 8
- full Hard · 8
- got Hard · 10
- grow Hard · 5
- hold Hard · 6
- hot Medium · 4
- hurt Hard · 7
- if Hard · 10
- keep Hard · 5
- kind Hard · 5
- laugh Hard · 5
- light Hard · 7
- long Hard · 6
- much Hard · 10
- myself Easy · 1
- never Easy · 1
- only Medium · 4
- own Medium · 3
- pick Hard · 9
- seven Easy · 1
- shall Medium · 4
- show Hard · 8
- six Hard · 10
- small Hard · 5
- start Easy · 1
- ten Medium · 3
- today Medium · 4
- together Easy · 1
- try Hard · 8
- warm Hard · 6
Words worth a closer look
- laughThe gh sounds like f, a spelling pattern also found in cough.
- lightTeach igh as one chunk, with the gh silent.
- myselfA compound of my and self, so spell it in two halves.
- togetherThree small words hide inside: to, get and her.
Teaching it
Sort by pattern. Light, right (second grade) and might share ight, a chunk worth teaching as one unit. Draw and show are verbs where the w is part of a vowel sound. Better and only add endings that students already know from other words.
Use the printable as a check, not a test. Have students fill it in from memory, then compare with the answer key and circle the letters they missed. Those circled letters tell you which part of each word to teach, and they are nearly always the same few spots: silent letters, doubled letters and vowel pairs.
Print a Third Grade Sight 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
- Dolch Sight WordsThe Dolch service words from pre-primer to third grade, with the history behind the list, a difficulty score for each word and hangman to practice.
- Pre-Primer Sight WordsThe 40 Dolch pre-primer words, the first level of the list, with hangman, difficulty scores and a printable worksheet and answer key.
- Primer Sight WordsAll 52 Dolch primer words, from all and am to who and yes, with hangman, per-word difficulty and a printable worksheet.
- First Grade Sight WordsThe 41 Dolch first-grade words, from after and again to walk and when, with hangman, difficulty scores and a worksheet.
- Second Grade Sight WordsThe 47 Dolch second-grade words, including because, their, would and don't, with hangman, difficulty scores and a printable.
- Dolch NounsThe 97 Dolch nouns, from apple and baby to window and wood, with hangman, difficulty scores and a printable worksheet and answer key.