Why Generic Word Lists Fall Short
Every client is different. A child working on initial /s/ clusters needs different targets than one working on final /k/. Age-appropriate vocabulary matters. Word frequency matters. Imageability and concreteness affect learnability. Generic word lists from textbooks or quick internet searches cannot account for all of these variables at once.
PhonoLex gives you precise control over your word lists. Define exactly what phoneme patterns you need, set constraints on word properties, exclude specific sounds your client cannot yet produce, and get a tailored list from a database of 44,011 English words.
Powerful Search and Filtering
The Custom Word Lists tool combines three types of constraints that work together:
- Phoneme pattern matching — Find words that start with, end with, or contain specific phoneme sequences. Use IPA transcription for precise phonological targeting (e.g., words starting with /str/ or ending with /ks/).
- Property filters — Set minimum and maximum values for any of 35 properties. Limit results to high-frequency words, early-acquired vocabulary, highly imageable nouns, or any combination you need.
- Phoneme exclusion — Remove words containing specific phonemes your client has not yet mastered. This ensures every word in your list is producible by the child at their current level.
35 Filterable Properties Across 9 Categories
Lexical
Word frequency (SUBTLEX-US), age of acquisition (Kuperman norms)
Phonological
Syllable count, phoneme count, Word Complexity Measure (WCM)
Phonotactic
Biphone probability, positional segment probability
Semantic
Imageability, concreteness, familiarity, prevalence
Affective
Valence, arousal, dominance
Cognitive
Iconicity, body-object interaction, socialness
All properties come from peer-reviewed psycholinguistic research datasets. Every word also includes percentile ranks so you can quickly identify where a word falls relative to the full vocabulary.
Built for Your Workflow
Once you have the list you need, export it as a CSV file for record keeping or a formatted text list for quick reference during sessions. Results are paginated and sortable, so you can work with large result sets without losing context. All searches return results in under a second, even with multiple filters active.
PhonoLex runs entirely in your browser — no software to install, no account to create, no data stored on our servers. Open the tool, build your list, export it, and get back to your clients.
Stop spending time on materials prep. Build your word list in seconds.
Try the Word List Generator →