11+ words to practise, level by level, until you know them.

What the 11+ actually asks for

English and verbal reasoning papers both depend on one thing: knowing what words mean, and which words are close in meaning and which are opposite. Pick the wrong one out of four and the question is lost, however well your child reads the rest of it.

So vocabulary is not an extra — it is one of the most important parts of the English and verbal reasoning papers. It is not the whole score, and this site will not pretend otherwise: no word list gives you the exam questions. What it does is stop a child losing marks they had already earned by reading well.

Five ways a word gets tested

• What does this word mean? — the definition, from four options
• Which word means this? — the word, from four options
• Which word is nearly the opposite? — antonyms, from four options
• Which word is nearly the same? — synonyms, from four options
• Fill in the gap — the word, in a sentence they can read

Four options each, so a child chooses from four answers instead of writing their own.

Where the words come from

We built the 2,247 words by collecting them the way our own sons did: writing down every unfamiliar word they met in their reading and their practice papers, working through UK education websites and free revision resources, and adding the ones that kept coming up.

Every one of them has a definition and a real example sentence. All but a handful also have synonyms and antonyms, which is what makes the nearest-word questions possible.

They run from everyday words to rare ones that turn up once in a passage, sorted into six levels. There is no official 11+ word list, and every school makes a different test — so this teaches many words instead of how one school asks its questions.

Words are learned by meeting them, not by being told

A word on a list is a word a child can recognise and not much more. A word they have read used, in a story they wanted to finish, is a word they are likelier to remember. So we write the vocabulary into short stories — written to be funny, because a child who is laughing is a child who is reading — and the word turns up in the middle of a sentence they have to understand to follow.

There are 120 of them, across all six levels, and they cost nothing to read. These are words that keep turning up — in the exam, and in secondary-school reading after it.

From everyday to rare

Sorted into six levels, so a child starts where they are and moves up step by step instead of all at once. A child who has never met a rare word is not behind; they are at the beginning, which is where Everyday starts.

1. Everydayvegetable
2. Commonabandon
3. Less commonabundance
4. Uncommonantiquity
5. Literaryaffable
6. Rareassiduous

Practise one level, or choose exactly which words to work on — you are not limited to the level the app thinks they are at. The higher levels are there for children aiming at highly selective schools.

Free to print while your trial or membership lasts

Any of the 2,247 words can be printed as a clean sheet — word only, word and meaning, or word with a sentence — laid out to fit the page, from a handful of words to the whole list.

And you can print exactly the words your child gets wrong. The app remembers which ones they answer wrong, and the print page shows only those words. It turns a weak subject into a short list.

Printing is free while your trial or membership is active, including the 7-day trial. After a free trial ends it needs a paid term — we would rather your child learned the words than bought anything from us, but we do have hosting to pay for.

Also here

What it costs

Seven days free, with no card needed. After that a fixed length, bought once. Launch offer — for new purchases made before 1 February 2027, the crossed-out price beside each length is the usual price it will move to:

• £2.00 for 1 month £4.00Usual price £4.00.
• £4.00 for 3 months £8.00Usual price £8.00.
• £12.00 for 1 year £24.00Usual price £24.00.

It is a one-off payment: it does not renew, there is nothing to cancel, and we will not charge you again. Buying again just adds time. One account is one child, so two children need to pay twice.

Things worth knowing first

If the cost is a problem, ask. We issue codes to families who are finding it hard, so you can keep every word and keep printing without paying. No proof needed — one email and a code appears on your account page.

Guides for families

Longer reads for the questions that come before the first word, written for a parent rather than a tutor.

• When to start preparing — a calm timeline from Year 4 to the exam.
• How to practise effectively — short sessions, and mistakes revisited.
• How many words to learn — a practical answer, and how to prioritise.
• Synonyms and antonyms — why they decide 11+ English papers.
• Handling exam pressure — keeping nerves proportionate, and when to ease off.