Year 3 and 4 Statutory Spelling List as Word Searches: 10 Sets and a Two-Year Plan
Published 23 September 2026
The Year 3 and 4 statutory spelling list has 100 words, and a child is expected to spell all of them by the end of Year 4. Some are easy to read and hard to write: February, separate, library, caught, straight. Most children can read the whole list well before they can spell it.
Schools usually send the list home in the autumn of Year 3, and many families put it on the fridge and hope. A better approach is ten words at a time, looked at closely, often. The Year 3/4 list is really a list of spelling traps (silent letters, unstressed vowels, odd vowel teams), and a word search that groups words by trap turns the fridge list into ten manageable puzzles. Here’s how.
Where the list comes from
The list is in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum (Department for Education, 2013), headed “Word list – years 3 and 4”. It’s statutory for maintained schools in England, and many international schools that follow the English curriculum use it too. Year 5 and 6 have a longer, harder list of their own; see our Year 5/6 sets.
Some words appear with variants in brackets, such as accident(ally) or occasion(ally). The sets below use the base word. Once the child is secure, add the longer form to a later puzzle.
Why grouping by spelling trap works
The official list is alphabetical, which is convenient for teachers and unhelpful for learning. Grouping words that share a trap lets the child notice the pattern, and a pattern noticed once makes five words easier, not one. It also makes a better puzzle: words with a shared chunk (-ough, -ture) look similar in a grid, so the child has to check every letter.
Settings for 7- to 9-year-olds: 10×10 grid · across, down and diagonal · backwards words once the child is confident · word list visible for the first puzzle of each set, then spoken or meaning clues. The full reasoning is in the difficulty guide by age.
The 10 sets
Set 1: Silent and surprising letters
answer · build · guard · guide · island · knowledge · heart · reign · naughty · minute
Set 2: The -ough and -augh family (plus two -aigh/-eigh cousins)
caught · thought · through · though · although · enough · bought (bonus: not on the list, but it belongs here) · daughter (bonus) · straight · weight
Set 2 includes two bonus words because -ough is only learnable as a family. Seeing the same four letters make five different sounds in one grid is the fastest way to stop thru and enuf.
Set 3: Unstressed vowels (the “uh” you can’t hear)
separate · library · February · different · difficult · ordinary · history · interest · favourite · medicine
Set 4: Endings that don’t sound the way they look
position · question · occasion · mention · pressure · purpose · material · natural · century · sentence
Set 5: -ear, -eigh and other vowel teams
heard · earth · early · learn · height · eight · eighth · breath · breathe · believe
Set 6: Double letters
address · different · possess · appear · arrive · accident · occasion · opposite · suppose · pressure
Set 6 repeats a few words from other sets on purpose. Double letters are the single most common error on this list, and seeing occasion (one s, two cs) next to possess (two double ss) is the contrast children need.
Set 7: Words with a hidden smaller word
business · busy · calendar · centre · certain · circle · island · experiment · experience · extreme
A good memory trick for this set: find the smaller word inside the bigger one. Bus in busy and business, is in island, cent in centre.
Set 8: Tricky nouns
bicycle · fruit · group · grammar · potatoes · quarter · strength · length · woman · women
Set 9: Adjectives and adverbs
actual · complete · early · extreme · famous · important · particular · peculiar · popular · probably
Set 10: Verbs
consider · continue · decide · describe · disappear · exercise · imagine · increase · notice · remember
What’s left over
A handful of words (arrive, forward, often, promise, recent, regular, special, strange, therefore, various, possible, perhaps) don’t fit neatly into a trap. Put them into a “mixed review” puzzle at the end of each term.
A two-year plan
The list is meant to be learned across two school years, and home practice can follow the same pace.
| Term | Sets | Clue type |
|---|---|---|
| Year 3 autumn | 1, 2 | Word list, then spoken |
| Year 3 spring | 3, 4 | Word list, then spoken |
| Year 3 summer | 5, 6 + mixed review | Spoken |
| Year 4 autumn | 7, 8 | Spoken, then meaning |
| Year 4 spring | 9, 10 | Meaning |
| Year 4 summer | Every set once more, weakest first | Meaning or spoken |
Two puzzles a week of about ten minutes each is plenty. The second puzzle of the week, with a fresh grid and the words hidden, does more than the first, because the child has to recall rather than copy. There’s more on that in why hiding the word works.
Checking it’s working
After each set, give a quick five-word spelling check, written, not typed. Note which words are wrong, and put exactly those words into the next week’s puzzle. The goal isn’t to finish ten sets but to shrink the list of words your child gets wrong. If the same word keeps coming back, SpellEasy’s post on a child who keeps misspelling the same words covers what to try next.
Making the puzzles
Type or paste any set into a word search generator, or photograph the school’s printed list with WordSearchEasy. It reads the words from the photo on the device, and you can keep just the ten you’re working on. The Medium setting (10×10 with diagonals) suits most Year 3 and 4 children. Each found word is read aloud, and the app tracks which words have been found three times without a hint, which is a handy way to see the fridge list shrinking. Printing a puzzle with an answer key is part of Premium.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words are on the Year 3 and 4 spelling list?
One hundred, in the English National Curriculum’s statutory word list for Years 3 and 4. A few have variants in brackets, such as accident(ally), which some schools count separately.
Do children need to know all the words by the end of Year 3?
No. The list covers two years, so the expectation is by the end of Year 4. Many schools split it roughly in half between the two years, and some send weekly batches of five to ten words.
What are the hardest words on the Year 3/4 list?
The ones children commonly get wrong include separate, February, library, occasion, believe, caught, straight, strength and particular. Most have an unstressed vowel, a silent letter, or a double letter in an unexpected place.
Is a word search enough to learn the statutory words?
On its own, no. It’s a good way to make the child look closely at each spelling, especially with the words hidden. Pair it with a short written check after each set and put the misspelled words back into the next puzzle.
Can I use this list if my child isn’t at school in England?
Yes. The words are common in any primary English curriculum, and international schools that follow the English curriculum often use this exact list. If your school provides its own list, use that instead and apply the same grouping idea.
WordSearchEasy turns your child’s own word list — or one of 300+ built-in topic lists — into a word search in seconds, with picture and sound clues and a printable answer key. Download free on the App Store.