• Years 5 and 6 • Spelling
The national curriculum includes a statutory list of 100 words that pupils in Years 5 and 6 should learn to spell. This guide sets out the full list, explains why these words are tricky and covers the spelling patterns pupils learn alongside them, with practical ideas for teaching them in class and practising them at home.
On this page
The Quick Answer
- The Year 5 and 6 word list is statutory. It is part of English Appendix 1 of the national curriculum.
- It contains 100 words, from accommodate to yacht.
- Pupils also learn spelling patterns such as -cious and -tious endings, -able and -ible and homophones.
- Teachers use the list when judging spelling in pupils’ writing at the end of Year 6.
Why Is There a Statutory Word List?
The national curriculum says pupils should use their knowledge of how words are built and where they come from to spell correctly. It also recognises that the spelling of some words “needs to be learnt specifically”. The Year 5 and 6 list collects those words. They are a mix of words pupils often use in their writing and words they often spell incorrectly.
The Full Year 5 and 6 Word List
| A to C | C to H | I to P | Q to Y |
|---|---|---|---|
| accommodate | correspond | identity | queue |
| accompany | criticise | immediate(ly) | recognise |
| according | curiosity | individual | recommend |
| achieve | definite | interfere | relevant |
| aggressive | desperate | interrupt | restaurant |
| amateur | determined | language | rhyme |
| ancient | develop | leisure | rhythm |
| apparent | dictionary | lightning | sacrifice |
| appreciate | disastrous | marvellous | secretary |
| attached | embarrass | mischievous | shoulder |
| available | environment | muscle | signature |
| average | equip | necessary | sincere(ly) |
| awkward | especially | neighbour | soldier |
| bargain | exaggerate | nuisance | stomach |
| bruise | excellent | occupy | sufficient |
| category | existence | occur | suggest |
| cemetery | explanation | opportunity | symbol |
| committee | familiar | parliament | system |
| communicate | foreign | persuade | temperature |
| community | forty | physical | thorough |
| competition | frequently | prejudice | twelfth |
| conscience | government | privilege | variety |
| conscious | guarantee | profession | vegetable |
| controversy | harass | programme | vehicle |
| convenience | hindrance | pronunciation | yacht |
Tip: many of these words can be used to practise adding suffixes, which is how the curriculum suggests teaching them. For example, accommodate becomes accommodation and determined comes from determine.
What Makes These Words Tricky?
| Difficulty | Examples from the list |
|---|---|
| Double letters | accommodate, committee, embarrass, necessary, occur |
| Single letters where you might expect a double | harass, develop |
| Unstressed vowels that are hard to hear | desperate, definite, average, category |
| Silent or unusual letters | muscle, rhythm, rhyme, yacht, foreign |
| Unusual letter strings | queue, thorough, twelfth, leisure |
| Words ending in -ise | criticise, recognise |
Using Word Origins
The curriculum suggests that understanding where words come from can help with spelling. Its own examples include:
- Conscience and conscious are related to science. Conscience is science with the prefix con- added, from the Latin word scio, meaning “I know”.
- Desperate is often pronounced desp’rate, but the -sper- part comes from the Latin spero, meaning “I hope”, where the e was clearly sounded.
- Familiar is related to family, so the unclear vowel sound in its first syllable is spelt a.
Year 5 and 6 Spelling Patterns
Alongside the word list, pupils learn these patterns. The rules and examples come from the national curriculum’s guidance:
| Pattern | Guidance | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -cious or -tious | If the root word ends in -ce, the sound is usually spelt c | vicious, gracious, ambitious, cautious |
| -cial or -tial | -cial is common after a vowel and -tial after a consonant | official, special, partial, essential |
| -ant, -ance or -ent, -ence | -ation endings are often a clue to -ant and -ance | observant, hesitancy, innocent, confidence |
| -able or -ible | -able is more common and is used if there is a related -ation word | adorable, changeable, possible, sensible |
| Adding suffixes to -fer | Double the r if -fer is still stressed | referring, preferred, reference, preference |
| Hyphens | Often used when the prefix ends and the root begins with a vowel | co-ordinate, re-enter, co-operate |
| ei after c | “i before e except after c” when the sound is ee | deceive, receive, ceiling |
| ough | One of the trickiest spellings, with several sounds | thought, rough, cough, though, through, plough |
| Silent letters | Letters that used to be sounded long ago | doubt, island, lamb, solemn, knight |
| Homophones | Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings | advice/advise, practice/practise, stationary/stationery, who’s/whose |
How Spelling Is Assessed
Spelling is assessed in two ways at the end of Key Stage 2:
- The spelling paper in the grammar, punctuation and spelling test is worth 20 marks and takes about 15 minutes.
- Teacher assessment of writing draws on the statutory word lists for Years 3 to 6. These words should generally be evident in pupils’ writing. If pupils do not use them in their day-to-day writing, evidence from tests and exercises alone is enough.
Read more in our guide to assessing English writing at Key Stage 2.
Teaching Ideas for Class
- Teach a few words at a time grouped by pattern, such as double letters or silent letters, rather than alphabetically.
- Build word families using prefixes and suffixes, for example communicate, communication and community.
- Explore word origins for words like conscience, desperate and familiar, as the curriculum suggests.
- Use dictionaries properly. The curriculum asks pupils to use the first three or four letters of a word to check its spelling or meaning.
- Look for the words in pupils’ writing and revisit any that are still being misspelt.
Practising at Home
- Practise five words a week rather than the whole list at once.
- Ask your child to spot the tricky part of each word and say it the way it is spelt, such as “def-in-ite” for definite.
- Write sentences that use the words in context.
- Revisit words from earlier weeks so they stick.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words are on the Year 5 and 6 spelling list?
There are 100 words on the statutory Year 5 and 6 word list.
Is the Year 5 and 6 spelling list statutory?
Yes. It is part of English Appendix 1 of the national curriculum, which states that the spelling of these words needs to be learnt specifically.
Are these words in the KS2 SATs?
The KS2 spelling paper is worth 20 marks and tests spelling from the Key Stage 2 curriculum. The word lists are also used when teachers judge spelling in pupils’ writing.
Is there a Year 3 and 4 spelling list too?
Yes. The national curriculum also has a statutory word list for Years 3 and 4.
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Sources: Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study, including English Appendix 1: spelling; Standards and Testing Agency, KS2 test administration guidance and KS2 teacher assessment guidance 2027.
