Fry Sight Words List: The First 100 Words

Fry sight words are the most common words in English reading, ranked by how often they turn up. Dr. Edward Fry, a reading researcher at Rutgers University, built the list from counts of the words in school books and other reading material. It runs to 1,000 words, in ten lists of 100.

The first 100 matter most by far. They're the little words on almost every line of a children's book, like the, of, and and was. Below is the full first 100, in Fry's order, split into four sets of 25 you can print or practise as flashcards.

How much of a typical page the top Fry words cover

First 25 words

about 1 in 3

First 100 words

about half

First 300 words

about 65%

The first 100 Fry sight words

Pick a set, or All 100 to see the whole list. The small number by each word is its place on Fry's list, so the (1) is the most common word of all. Each set downloads as a printable PDF.

What the first 100 do for a new reader

Here's an ordinary sentence from an early reader, with the first-100 Fry words highlighted:

When you get home, look for the cat that is on the long red mat by the door.

13 of 18 words

When the common words are automatic, a child stops spending all their effort on the and was, and starts paying attention to the story.

Fry vs. Dolch: which list should you use?

Both lists aim at the same thing, and many schools use one or the other. Here's how they differ:

	Fry	Dolch
Size	1,000 words, in ten lists of 100	220 words, plus 95 nouns on their own list
Ordered by	How common each word is	Grade, pre-K to 3rd
Includes nouns	Yes (water, people, day)	Not in the main 220
Goes up to	About 3rd to 5th grade	3rd grade

The good news is that they overlap heavily, especially at the start:

The first 100 Fry words, compared with Dolch

86 are Dolch words too

14

wordseachothertimemorenumberwaypeoplethanwatercalledoildaypart

So a child who knows one list is most of the way through the start of the other. Use whichever list your child's school uses. If you're choosing for yourself, Fry is the better long-term path because it keeps going past third grade, while Dolch, grouped by grade, is handy when you want to know what's expected in a particular year.

A 5-minute routine for the first 100

A hundred words sounds like a lot, but nobody learns them all at once. Work through one set of 25 at a time, a few new words a week.

One 5-minute session

Warm upknown words

New words3 at a time, mixed in with ones they know

Read itin a sentence

0 min12345 min

1. Go in Fry's order. The list is already sorted by usefulness, so words 1 to 25 pay off fastest. Finish a set before starting the next.
2. Three to five new words a week. Add more only when the current ones are easy.
3. Use the word in a sentence. Every card in our decks has one, like "Look at that bird!" for that. Saying the sentence aloud makes the word mean something.
4. Watch for the look-alikes. Was and saw, on and no, then and them, there and their: all in the first 100, and all easy to mix up. Practise them side by side.
5. A word is learned when it's instant on three different days. Reading it once isn't enough. Words read in about three seconds, without sounding out, on three separate days have stuck.

Flashcards that come back on a schedule fit this well. A word your child struggles with comes back the next day, and a word they know comes back less and less often, so practice time goes where it's needed. Our free decks do this for you, with a sentence and a read-aloud button on every card.

For teachers: a quick check

Show one child the words from one set and mark each word read within about three seconds. Words they miss or sound out become their practice list. The PDFs above have a tick box beside every word, so one sheet per child works as a record you can repeat every few weeks.

Common questions

What are Fry sight words?

The 1,000 most common words in English reading material, ranked by how often they appear and split into ten lists of 100. Dr. Edward Fry put the list together from counts of the words in school books and other reading.

What's the difference between Fry and Dolch sight words?

Dolch is 220 words grouped by grade, with nouns on a separate list. Fry is 1,000 words ranked by frequency, nouns included. They overlap a lot: 86 of the first 100 Fry words are also Dolch words. See our Dolch sight words list for the grade-by-grade version.

What grade are the first 100 Fry words for?

Usually kindergarten and first grade. Many schools aim for the first 100 by the end of first grade and the second 100 during second grade, but every child moves at their own pace.

How many Fry words a week?

Three to five new words for most young children, with a few minutes of practice a day. Move on when the current words are instant on three different days.