Fry High Frequency Words

What are Fry Words?

Dr. Fry’s 1,000 Instant Words are the most common written words in the English language, listed in order of frequency, and include all parts of speech. Fry Words are also sometimes referred to as high frequency words or sight words. The 1,000 Fry words are important for students to learn to easily recognize in order to achieve reading fluency. When students are able to recognize these high frequency words by sight and not stop to decode each word, they can better focus on reading comprehension.

Why Fry Words instead of Dolch Sight Words?

The Dolch sight word lists were compiled by Edward William Dolch and published in 1948. The Dolch sight word lists consist of the 220 most commonly used words in the English language.

In 1996, Dr. Edward Fry expanded the Dolch sight word lists and published the Fry 1,000 Instant Words.

Fry’s research found:
– 25 words make up approximately 33% of all published text.
– 100 words comprise approximately 50% of all written material.
– 300 words make up approximately 65% of all the words found in publications.

It is recommended that:
– The first 100 Fry Words(1-100), considered the most frequently occurring in the English language, should be mastered in 1st grade.
– The second 100 Fry Words(101-200) should be mastered in 2nd grade.
– The third 100 Fry Words(201-300) should be mastered in 3rd grade.
– The remaining Fry Words (words 301 – 1,000) should be mastered in 4th or 5th grade.