Phonics Vocabulary Test Review

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts relevant to phonics and literacy instruction.

absorbed prefix

A prefix that modifies a base word's meaning, indicating something that has been taken in or incorporated.

adjective

A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun.

adverb

A word that describes or modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a full sentence.

African American English

A dialect of English spoken by many African Americans, with its own distinct phonology, syntax, and vocabulary.

affricate

A consonant sound that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative.

affix

A morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form (includes prefixes and suffixes).

alphabet knowledge

The ability to identify and name the letters of the alphabet.

alphabetic principle

The understanding that there is a systematic and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds.

ambiguous vowel

A vowel sound that can be represented by more than one spelling pattern, or a spelling pattern that can represent more than one vowel sound (e.g., 'ou' in 'tough', 'through', 'bough').

assessment-instruction cycle

An ongoing process of assessing student learning, analyzing data, and adjusting instruction based on student needs.

assimilated prefix

A prefix whose spelling or pronunciation has changed to match the initial sound of the base word (e.g., "in-" becoming "im-" in "impossible").

automaticity

The ability to perform a task quickly and accurately without conscious thought.

base word

A word that can stand alone and to which prefixes and suffixes can be added.

blending

The process of combining individual sounds (phonemes) to form a word.

bound morpheme

A morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word and must be attached to a prefix or suffix.

closed sort

A word sort where the categories are predetermined by the teacher.

closed syllable

A syllable that ends with a consonant sound, typically resulting in a short vowel sound (e.g., 'cat', 'dog').

coarticulation

The phenomenon where the production of one phoneme is influenced by the production of the next phoneme.

complex consonant patterns

Consonant sounds or spellings that involve more than a single letter or simple blends (e.g., digraphs, trigraphs, silent letters, r-controlled vowels).

compound word

A word made up of two or more smaller words that retain their individual meanings.

concept sort

A word sort where students group words based on shared conceptual attributes.

concepts of print

Understanding about the forms and functions of written language, such as directionality, title, author, and punctuation.

conjunction

A word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause (e.g., 'and', 'but', 'or').

consonant

A speech sound that is produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the airflow in the vocal tract.

consonant alteration

A change in the pronunciation of a consonant, often signaling a different grammatical form or meaning (e.g., 'electric' /k/ to 'electricity' /s/).

consonant alteration conventions

The rules or patterns governing changes in consonant sounds.

consonant blend

A group of two or three consonants that appear together in a word and each sound is heard.

consonant doubling conventions

Rules that dictate when a consonant letter is doubled before adding a suffix (e.g., 'run' to 'running').

consonant-vowel-consonant pattern

A common spelling pattern where a consonant is followed by a vowel and then another consonant (CVC).

copula

A verb (often a form of 'to be') that connects the subject of a sentence to a complement (e.g., "He is happy").

dependent clause

A group of words that contains a subject and a verb but does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence.

derivational relations stage

The most advanced stage of spelling development, where students explore the relationship between spelling and meaning, especially regarding prefixes, suffixes, and Greek/Latin roots.

derivational suffix

A suffix that changes the grammatical category or the meaning of the base word (e.g., -ness in 'kindness' changes 'kind' (adj) to 'kindness' (noun)).

deep/opaque orthography

A writing system where there is an inconsistent or less predictable relationship between letters and sounds (e.g., English).

dialect

A particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.

differentiated instruction

Tailoring instruction to meet the individual needs of diverse learners in a classroom.

digraph

Two letters that represent a single sound (e.g., 'sh', 'ch', 'th').

diphthong

A complex vowel sound that begins with one vowel sound and glides into another within the same syllable.

dyslexia

A specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin and characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

-ed conventions

Rules governing the pronunciation and spelling of the past tense suffix "-ed" (e.g., /t/ in 'walked', /d/ in 'played', /əd/ in 'wanted').

e-drop conventions

Rules for dropping the silent 'e' before adding a vowel suffix to a base word (e.g., 'make' + '-ing' = 'making').

elision

The omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (e.g., 'camera' pronounced as 'camra').

emergent stage

The earliest stage of literacy development, where learners begin to explore written language.

encode

The process of converting spoken language into written symbols (writing/spelling).

explicit instruction

A direct, systematic approach to teaching, where the teacher clearly explains and models skills, and provides guided practice.

free morpheme

A morpheme that can stand alone as a word (e.g., 'cat', 'run', 'happy').

gradual release of responsibility

An instructional model where teachers gradually shift responsibility for learning to the students (I do, We do, You do).

grapheme

The smallest unit of written language that represents a phoneme (e.g., 'a', 'sh', 'igh').

grapheme-phoneme correspondence

The relationship between letters or letter combinations and the sounds they represent.

hard c

The /k/ sound produced by the letter 'c' (e.g., 'cat', 'cup').

hard g

The /g/ sound produced by the letter 'g' (e.g., 'goat', 'game').

homograph

Words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and sometimes different pronunciations (e.g., 'bass' (fish) vs. 'bass' (musical tone)).

homophone

Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings (e.g., 'to', 'too', 'two').

independent clause

A group of words that contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought, able to stand alone as a sentence.

inflectional ending/suffix

A suffix added to a base word to indicate tense, number, case, etc.

invented spelling

A child's attempt to spell a word based on their current understanding of letter-sound relationships; also known as "inventive spelling" or "temporary spelling."

irregular word

A word that does not follow common phonetic spelling rules, making it difficult to decode using typical phonics strategies (e.g., 'of', 'said', 'where').

letter

An individual symbol used in written language.

letter name knowledge

The ability to recognize and name each letter of the alphabet.

letter name-alphabetic stage

A stage of spelling development where students attempt to match letters to sounds they hear in speech, often using the names of letters to represent sounds.

letter recognition

The ability to identify individual letters of the alphabet.

letter-sound correspondence

The relationship between a letter or group of letters and the sounds they represent.

long/tense vowel

A vowel sound that says its name (e.g., /a/ in 'bake', /e/ in 'feet').

long vowel patterns/conventions

Common spelling patterns that represent long vowel sounds (e.g., VCe, vowel teams like 'ee', 'ai', 'oa').

medial sound

The sound in the middle of a word.

metalinguistic

The ability to think about and reflect on language itself.

morpheme

The smallest meaningful unit of language (can be a word or part of a word).

morphemic analysis

The process of breaking down words into their constituent morphemes (prefixes, suffixes, roots) to determine their meaning.

morphology

The study of the forms of words, and how words are built from morphemes.

morphophonemic

Pertaining to the relationship between morphemes and the phonological changes that occur when they are combined.

multisyllabic

A word that consists of two or more syllables.

noun/noun phrase

A word or group of words that represents a person, place, thing, or idea.

onset

The initial consonant sound(s) of a syllable (e.g., 'str' in 'string').

open sort

A word sort where students determine the categories for grouping words themselves.

open syllable

A syllable that ends with a vowel sound, typically resulting in a long vowel sound (e.g., 'go', 'me').

orthography

The conventional spelling system of a language.

pattern sort

A word sort where students group words based on similar spelling patterns.

phoneme

The smallest unit of sound in a language that distinguishes one word from another (e.g., /c/ in 'cat' vs. /b/ in 'bat').

phonemic awareness

The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.

phonics

A method of teaching reading that focuses on the relationships between letters and sounds (grapheme-phoneme correspondences).

phonogram

A letter or combination of letters that represents a sound (e.g., 'igh' in 'light'). Often refers to a rime pattern.

phonological awareness

The ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds in spoken words.

phonological processing

The use of phonological information to process oral and written language.

phonology

The study of the sound system of a language.

picture/sound sort

A word sort where students group pictures or words based on their initial, medial, or final sounds.

plural

A grammatical number indicating more than one.

plural conventions

Rules for forming plural nouns, including regular additions (e.g., -s, -es) and irregular forms.

pragmatics

The study of how context contributes to meaning.

prefix

A morpheme added to the beginning of a word to modify its meaning.

pronoun

A word that takes the place of a noun or noun phrase.

predicate

The part of a sentence that contains the verb and states something about the subject.

preposition/prepositional phrase

A word that shows the relationship between a noun/pronoun and other words in a sentence; a phrase consisting of a preposition and its object.

preconsonantal nasals

Nasal sounds (m, n) that occur before a consonant in the same syllable, often causing the vowel to be nasalized (e.g., 'camp', 'hand').

r-controlled vowel

A vowel sound that is influenced by the letter 'r' following it, changing the typical vowel sound (e.g., 'ar' in 'car', 'ir' in 'bird').

rhyme

Words that have the same ending sound.

rime

The part of a syllable that includes the vowel and any subsequent consonant sounds (e.g., '-at' in 'cat').

root word

The most basic form of a word, to which prefixes and suffixes can be added.

schwa

An unstressed and toneless vowel sound that occurs in many English words.

schwa patterns

Common occurrences and spellings that represent the schwa sound.

segmentation

The process of breaking a word down into its individual sounds (phonemes) or syllables.