It is very important that you use the terms correctly when instructing students so as to avoid confusion and inaccuracy in their understanding.

Study the list of phonics terms and definitions. When you are ready to quiz yourself, press the Click Here To Begin! button below. A grid will appear with the terms and definitions scattered randomly.

Terms and Definitions

Phoneme: a speech sound that combines with others in a language to make words.
Grapheme: the written symbol for a speech sound.
Vowel digraph (or vowel pair): two vowels together in a word that represent one phoneme (for example, ea, ai, ay, oa).
Consonant digraph: two consonants appearing together that represent one phoneme (sound) – ch, sh.
Consonant blend:-two or more consonants appearing together in a word with each retaining its sound – st, bl, br, str.
Diphthong: a special vowel sound that requires two different positions of the mouth to produce the sound /oi/, /ow/.
Syllable: a segment of a word that contains one vowel sound (the vowel may or may not be preceded and/or followed by a consonant).
Segmenting: separating the individual phonemes (sounds) of a word into discrete units.
Phonogram: another term for rime or word family.
Onset: in a single syllable word or syllable of a longer word, the onset is the initial consonant or consonants.
Rime: the vowel and any consonants that follow it in a syllable or single syllable word.
Blending: the task of combining the distinct units of sound that comprise a word rapidly, to accurately represent the word.
Chunking: the practice of breaking a word into manageable parts for the purpose of decoding or as a strategy for figuring out a longer word.
Decoding: the process of translating printed words into an oral language representation, using knowledge of letter-sound relationships and word structure.
Alphabetic Principle: the understanding that letters and letter combinations represent individual phonemes in words in written language.