Word List
Short O Words
Short o is the sound in hot, pot and mop, and at the start of octopus. It is the roundest of the five short vowels, said with the mouth open and the jaw dropped.
- hot
- pot
- mop
- cob
- dot
- top
- hop
- cop
- rod
- sob
- log
- fog
- jog
- pop
Short o is the sound you hear in hot, pot and mop, and at the start of octopus. It is the roundest of the five: the mouth opens and the jaw drops, which makes it the easiest short vowel for a child to copy off your face.
Every word on this page has short o in it, and the list leads with the words that sound the same wherever in the country you live.
What are the short o word families?
Short o has four families, -ot, -op, -og and -ob, and each has its own list and worksheets on the CVC words page.
| Family | Words |
|---|---|
| -ot | hot, pot, dot, got, not |
| -op | mop, top, hop, pop, cop |
| -og | log, fog, jog, dog |
| -ob | cob, job, sob, rob |
rod is on this page and in none of them. It is an -od word, and -od is not a family worth
teaching: rod, nod and cod is close to all of it. It is here because it is a clean, stable
short o a child can picture.
Why dog is not the word to teach short o on
In a lot of the United States, the o in dog is not the o in hot. For many American speakers dog, log and frog take a longer, rounder vowel than hot, pot and mop, and for many others they are identical. Both are ordinary English.
That matters here and almost nowhere else on this site: a page teaching one short vowel sound has to
pick words where the sound is the same for everyone reading. So this page teaches short o on hot,
pot, mop, top and cob, and puts log and jog further down where they are practice rather than the
example. fog is in the review list and on the handwriting sheet, but it leads nothing. If dog sounds like hot to you, nothing is lost. If it does not, nothing is broken.
How to practice short o words
Read them, then write them, then find them in a book. Say the sound before the word: /o/, then hot. Short o is the one vowel worth doing in front of a mirror, because the jaw drop is visible and your child can check themselves against you.
One vowel at a time, in a set order, is the point. That is what the National Reading Panel calls systematic phonics, and the panel found it “significantly more effective than instruction that teaches little or no phonics” across kindergarten through 6th grade.
There is no word scramble on this page, on purpose. Short o is the worst of the five for it: pot and top are each other’s answers and both are on this list, and hop, dot and sob all scramble into something else. The answer key would mark a right answer wrong.
Short o and long o
Long o says the letter’s own name: hop becomes hope, not becomes note, rod becomes rode. The silent e on the end is what does it, and none of the long ones are on this page.
Silent-e words pairs each short word with its long twin.
Knowing both sounds for the same letter is a kindergarten expectation: Common Core (RF.K.3b) asks children to “associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels”.
Which words start with short o?
Short o at the start of a word is where the sound is easiest to hear, and octopus is the word almost every phonics chart uses to teach it. Say it slowly and the first sound out of your mouth is the one this page is about.
There are only a handful of these. On, off, ox, octopus and olive is close to all of them, and two of the five are words your child will read on sight long before they sound them out.
Say ox, octopus and olive if you want the clearest example. For a lot of American speakers
on and off take the same longer, rounder vowel that dog and log do, which is why this page
teaches short o on hot, pot and mop. If those two sound a little different when you say them, that is
normal and nothing is wrong.
Most short o words put the o in the middle, which is the two sections below.
- on
- off
- ox
- octopus
- olive
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Printables for Short O at the Start
- Short O at the Start: Word Cards (PDF)5 cards · 1 page
Preview page 1Preview
What are the first short o words to read?
Six words, and every one of them sounds the same wherever you live. Hot, pot, mop, cob, dot, top: this is short o at its clearest.
Pot and top are the pair to watch. They are the same three letters in the opposite order, so a child reading from left to right gets one and a child guessing from the shape gets the other. On the picture sheets they are easy to tell apart; on the word cards they are the best test on this page of whether your child is really reading.
Do the sound boxes in front of a mirror. Short o drops the jaw more than any other short vowel, so it is the one sound your child can check by watching you.
- hot
- pot
- mop
- cob
- dot
- top
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Printables for First Short O Words
- First Short O Word Cards (PDF)6 cards · 1 page
Preview page 1Preview
- First Short O Words: Sound Boxes (PDF)6 words · answer key included · 2 pages
Preview page 1Preview
- First Short O Words: Read, Write, Match (PDF)6 words · answer key included · 3 pages
Preview page 1Preview
What are some more short o words?
Six more, and this is where the -og family turns up. Hop, cop, rod, sob, log, jog.
If log and jog sound a little different from hot and pot when you say them, that is normal. In much of the United States the o in log is rounder and longer than the o in hot. Both are ordinary English, and a child who says them differently is not making a mistake. They are down here rather than at the top of the page for that reason.
Hop and top are one letter apart and sit on facing sections on purpose, which makes them a good end-of-page check: read them together and see whether your child is looking at the first letter.
- hop
- cop
- rod
- sob
- log
- jog
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Printables for More Short O Words
- More Short O Word Cards (PDF)6 cards · 1 page
Preview page 1Preview
- More Short O Words: Sound Boxes (PDF)6 words · answer key included · 2 pages
Preview page 1Preview
- More Short O Words: Read, Write, Match (PDF)6 words · answer key included · 3 pages
Preview page 1Preview
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Mixed review: printables for the whole list
Every sheet below is built from the Short O Words above. No account, no email, no watermark. Start at the top and print one at a time. The sheets are in teaching order, and ten minutes on a single sheet is more valuable than working through a stack on autopilot.
- Short O Words: Read, Trace, Find (PDF)3 words · answer key included · 2 pages
Preview page 1Preview
- Short O Words: Handwriting Practice (PDF)14 words · 2 pages
Preview page 1Preview
- Short O Word Ladder (PDF)8 rungs · answer key included · 2 pages
Preview page 1Preview
What comes after short o words?
Short o is usually the fourth vowel a child meets, so by here most of the set is behind you.
- Short u is the last one, and it is the one short o is most often confused with (hot and hut, cop and cup): short u words.
- For more words with the same ending, the families are on CVC words: -ot, -op, -og and -ob.
- Once all five are going, short vowel words mixes them on one page.
- Short vowel sounds is the chart for the fridge, with all five sounds and how each is made.
When short vowels are easy, two letters making one sound come next: words with th, sh words and ck words.
Frequently asked questions
What sound does short o make?
Short o is the sound in hot, pot and mop, and at the start of octopus. The mouth is open and round and the jaw drops, which makes it the easiest of the five to see someone else say.
What are short o words?
Short o words are words where the letter o makes its short sound: hot, pot, mop, top, hop, dot. Nearly all of them put the o in the middle, between two consonants.
What words start with short o?
Very few that a young child would know. On, off, ox, octopus and olive is close to the whole set, and octopus is the one most phonics charts use to teach the sound.
Why is dog not on this list?
Because it is not the same vowel for everyone. In a large part of the United States the o in dog, log and frog is said differently from the o in hot and pot, so teaching the sound on dog would teach a different sound to many children. This list leads with words that are the same wherever you live.
What is the difference between short o and long o?
A long o says the letter's own name. Hop has short o and hope has long o, and the silent e on the end is what changes it. Not becomes note, and rod becomes rode.