How the list and the board work

This page is a vocabulary list built for 8th grade readers. Each word comes with its pronunciation, its part of speech, a plain meaning and a sentence that shows it doing its job, not just sitting in a definition.

When you're done reading, tap Play this list to open a board that only serves words from this page. Type a guess and check the colors. Green is the right letter in the right spot, yellow is the right letter in the wrong spot, and gray means the letter isn't in the word at all. Each guess narrows the next one.

A few words from the list

These four words are examples to show the format. They are not the word on today's board, so reading them here won't spoil anything.

Discern (dih-SURN), verb: to notice or understand something that isn't obvious. "It was hard to discern the difference between the two paintings from across the room."

Feasible (FEE-zuh-bul), adjective: possible to do, realistic given the resources at hand. "Building the treehouse in a weekend was not feasible with only hand tools."

Resilient (rih-ZIL-yunt), adjective: able to recover quickly from difficulty. "The team stayed resilient after losing the first two games of the season."

Tangible (TAN-juh-bul), adjective: able to be touched, or clearly real and specific. "The trophy was tangible proof that the weeks of practice had paid off."

Study tips for 8th grade readers

Words at this level often show up in reading you do for other subjects, not just English class, so it helps to notice them wherever they appear.

• Watch for them in your other reading. Once you learn a word like resilient, you'll

start spotting it in science articles, history texts and the news. That repetition does more for memory than flashcards alone.

• Explain it to someone else. If you can define a word for a younger sibling or a

friend in your own words, you actually know it. If you can't, that's a sign to review it.

• Compare similar words. Feasible and possible mean close to the same thing, but

feasible leans toward "realistic to actually do." Noticing small differences like that sharpens how precisely you use a word.

• Write with the word, not around it. Instead of avoiding a new word in an essay

because it feels risky, try it once in a low-stakes sentence first.

• Review before you play, not after. Reading the list first makes each guess on the

board a chance to recall, not just a coin flip.

For teachers

This list works well as a bell-ringer at the start of class. Show a word and its pronunciation, ask students to guess the part of speech and meaning, then reveal the definition and example together. Several of the words here, like discern and resilient, connect naturally to discussion in science or history classes as well as English.

If you want a paper version for a quiz or a handout, printing this page from the browser gives you the word list with pronunciation, part of speech and meaning already laid out. Since the list is still being built, check back for new words rather than treating a printed copy as final.

Because the board only draws from this list, it also works as a shared activity where the whole class plays from the same words and compares strategies afterward.

More vocabulary practice

If a word here feels like a step too far, the 7th grade vocabulary list is a good place to check first. Ready to go further, try vocabulary words for 9th graders. For general practice, see word of the day for students, take the vocabulary quiz, or browse vocabulary books for more ways to keep building your list.