Oxford Wordlist

What is the Oxford Wordlist?


The Oxford Wordlist includes the 500 most frequently used words by children in their first three years of school. We've examined these word choices against the same demographic criteria used in the first research conducted 10 years ago, and explored what these word choices indicate about how children's identities and social experiences have changed in the past decade.

This Oxford Wordlist research also informs Oxford University Press’ local Primary publishing. The Oxford Wordlist is an integral feature of our reading program, Oxford Reading for Comprehension and features in our early years dictionaries, personal dictionaries, and the Oxford Handwriting series.

   Developed by Australian experts for Australian schools

   The most used wordlist in Australian Primary schools

   Allows teachers to customise wordlists for targeted teaching

   Wordlist is integrated into Oxford's literacy resources

   Helps improve students' reading and writing outcomes

Build your Wordlist today



Start now

Oxford Wordlist Builder

Book a consultation to receive a free Wordlist poster:

“In the Australian Curriculum a strong emphasis is placed on acknowledging the words students already have in their spoken repertoires. Teachers must intentionally expand their vocabularies, however, by teaching new words and this needs to start from the first year at school. This spoken vocabulary development has a symbiotic relationship with listening, reading, and writing (spelling).The more words students speak, the better placed they are to understand what others are saying, to know the meanings of words when they are reading, and to start using their burgeoning vocabularies in their writing.”

Anne Bayetto, Wordlist 2018 researcher

OXFORD PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT HUB

Enhance your teaching skills with our wealth of insights informed by research and classroom practice.