Word families are groups of words that share the same ending pattern and sound. For example, cat, hat, mat, and sat belong to the -at word family. Learning word families helps beginning readers recognize common spelling patterns and read new words more easily.
Many beginning word families contain CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant words), such as cat, hat, mat, and sat.
Common Word Families
Browse common word families below. Some entries include longer words that still share the family ending, not only three-letter CVC spellings.