Sight words
Fry sight words
The Fry list (Edward Fry, 1957) is 1,000 'instant words' ranked by how often they appear in print. The first 100 alone make up about half of everything we read. Here's the first 100 — and the right way to teach them.
Word lists
Fry first 100 (alphabetical)
Don't memorize them — map them.
Most words on this list are decodable with regular phonics (can, go, red, up, see) — they should be sounded out, not memorized by shape. Only the genuinely irregular ones (the, said, you, was) need special handling, and the Science-of-Reading way to teach those is as heart words: decode the regular letters, flag the irregular part to "know by heart," and let repeated reading bond the word through orthographic mapping.
Full method on the sight words hub, and the science behind it in the Science of Reading guide.
More sight word lists
Frequently asked
Fry words sight words: questions.
What are Fry sight words?
The Fry list is the 1,000 most frequent words in English print, compiled by Edward Fry in 1957 and updated in 1980. They're called 'instant words' because skilled readers recognize them instantly. The first 100 cover roughly half of all printed text; the first 300 cover about two-thirds.
How is Fry different from Dolch?
Fry has 1,000 words ranked by frequency; Dolch has 315 words grouped by grade. They overlap substantially. Fry reaches further up the grades, which is why upper-elementary programs often use it. The teaching method doesn't change: decode the regular words, and map genuinely irregular words as heart words rather than memorizing shapes.
Turn the list into real reading.
Storytime AI tags heart words in every decodable book, models the irregular part, and scores them as students read — the Science-of-Reading way. Free classroom, no credit card.