Word family
The -ick word family
The answer
The -ick word family is every one-syllable word that ends in the rime ick, said /ik/. Our lexicon has 17 public words in it: 8 with one consonant first, 6 with a blend and 3 with a digraph or silent-letter pair.
What is in this family?
The ick family is short i with the ck spelling, and its words fill early books. Every word is one syllable and follows the ck rule: one short vowel right before /k/, so ck. The family mixes single onsets (kick, pick, sick, lick), blends (stick, trick, brick, click, flick) and qu (quick), and longer words build on it later, like lipstick and chopstick.
The words, sorted by what comes before the rime
One consonant before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| pick | p + ick | Lesson 44 |
| kick | k + ick | Lesson 44 |
| nick | n + ick | Lesson 44 |
| sick | s + ick | Lesson 44 |
| tick | t + ick | Lesson 44 |
| hick | h + ick | Lesson 44 |
| lick | l + ick | Lesson 44 |
| wick | w + ick | Lesson 44 |
A blend before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| stick | st + ick | Lesson 44 |
| trick | tr + ick | Lesson 44 |
| brick | br + ick | Lesson 44 |
| click | cl + ick | Lesson 44 |
| flick | fl + ick | Lesson 44 |
| slick | sl + ick | Lesson 44 |
A digraph or silent-letter pair before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| quick | qu + ick | Lesson 44 |
| thick | th + ick | Lesson 47 |
| chick | ch + ick | Lesson 48 |
Word ladder: change one sound at a time
Every step is a real word from the list, and each one changes exactly one sound. Say the change aloud before the student writes the new word.
| Step | Word | The change |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | pick | start here |
| 2 | kick | change /p/ to /k/ |
| 3 | quick | add /w/ |
| 4 | click | change /w/ to /l/ |
| 5 | lick | take away /k/ |
| 6 | nick | change /l/ to /n/ |
| 7 | sick | change /n/ to /s/ |
| 8 | stick | add /t/ |
| 9 | tick | take away /s/ |
| 10 | trick | add /r/ |
Rhymes spelled another way
These words rhyme with the family but spell the rime differently, so they belong to other families. Expect students to mix them up when spelling.
| Spelling | Words |
|---|---|
| -ic | sic |
How do you teach it?
Teach it right after ck. Use single consonants first, then blends, and connect it to the ack family so students see the same ending after a different vowel.
"The family is i-c-k, /ik/. Read with me: pick, sick, tick. Now add /s/ in front of tick: stick. Take away the /s/ and add /r/ after the /t/: trick."
What is the common error, and the fix?
Students write "kik", "pik" or "stik". The fix is the ck question: one short vowel right before /k/ means ck, every time in this family.
Sort it: a hands-on activity
Mix ick and ack cards. Students sort by vowel sound, then read each column and underline the ck in every word.
How this list was built
Every word comes from our lexicon of about 19,000 common words, each checked against a pronouncing dictionary and split into spelling units. Words a student meets in our assessments and progress-monitoring probes are left out, so practicing a list never rehearses a test. A family is every one-syllable base word (no suffix, not a compound) whose rime, the vowel unit and every unit after it, has the same spelling and the same sounds, so bead and bread are in different families. Ladders use only words from the list, and each step changes exactly one sound.
"Readable after" is the first lesson in the lesson sequence at which our decodability engine finds every sound-spelling in the word taught; "not taught" means the word has a spelling the sequence does not cover, so it is read with help. You can check your own lists and passages with the free decodable text checker.
Questions people ask
How many words are in the -ick family?
Our lexicon has 17 one-syllable words ending in ick that a student can practice. Words used in our assessments are left out, so a few common words may be missing from the list.
Is quick in the ick family?
Yes. Qu spells /kw/, so quick is qu plus ick. It is one of the most common words in the family.
What is a word ladder?
A chain of real words where each step changes one sound: swap a sound, add one, or take one away. Students say the change before they write it, which trains them to hear every sound in the word.