Words With Silent Letters

Look at the words below and read them out loud. Putting them in a sentence will help you better remember which words include silent letters.

Words With Silent B

The letter B is often silent when it is placed at the end of a word and is preceded by M (-MB). 

• Aplomb
• Bomb
• Climb
• Comb
• Crumb
• Debt
• Doubt
• Dumb
• Jamb
• Lamb
• Limb
• Numb
• Plumb
• Subtle
• Succumb
• Thumb
• Tomb
• Womb

Words With Silent C

The letter C is often silent when it is placed after an S (SC).

• Abscess
• Ascend / ascent
• Conscience
• Conscious
• Crescent
• Descend
• Disciple
• Evanesce
• Fascinate
• Fluorescent
• Muscle
• Obscene
• Resuscitate
• Scenario
• Scene
• Scissors

Words With Silent D

The letter D is often silent when it is placed in the middle of a word, either after an N or before a G (-DG-, -ND-).

• Bridge
• Edge
• Handkerchief (**NOTE: in the word "hand", the D is not silent)
• Handsome
• Handful
• Grandson
• Ledger
• Sandwich
• Wednesday

Words With Silent E

Many words contain a silent E, especially at the end of a word. Usually these words end in Vowel + Consonant + Silent E. The list is very extensive; here are some examples:

• Debate
• Desire
• Excite
• Kite
• Love
• Make
• Name

In American English, we tend to drop silent E's in some words.

• Judgement (BrE) / judgment (AmE)
• Programme (BrE) / program (AmE)

Words With Silent G

The letter G is oftentimes silent when it is placed before N, mostly when GN appears at the beginning or the end of the word. It is also usually silent when it appears before H (GH).

• Align
• Assign
• Benign
• Champagne
• Cologne
• Consign
• Design
• Feign
• Foreign
• Gnarl
• Gnash
• Gnaw
• Gnome
• Gnomic
• High
• Light
• Resign
• Sign

Words With Silent H

The letter H is sometimes silent when it is placed after C (CH) and it is always silent when it appears after some consonants (GH, WH, RH). Here are +30 words with silent H:

• Anchor
• Archeology (in BrE: archaeology)
• Architect / architecture
• Archive
• Borough
• Chaos
• Character / characteristic
• Charisma
• Chemical / chemistry / chemist
• Choreograph
• Chorus
• Christmas / Christian
• Echo
• Heir
• Herbs (**only in AmE)
• Hour
• Honest / honor
• Ghost
• Psychology
• Rhino
• Schedule (**only in AmE)
• Scheme
• School
• Tech / technology / techie
• Thai / Thailand
• Thigh
• Thorough
• Vehicle
• Weigh
• What / when / where / why / which
• White
• While

Words With Silent K

The letter K is silent when it appears at the beginning of a word followed by N (KN-).

• Knack
• Knave
• Knead
• Knee
• Kneel
• Knell
• Knickers
• Knife
• Knight
• Knit
• Knob
• Knock
• Knoll
• Knot
• Know / knew / known
• Knowledge
• Knuckle

Words With Silent L

The letter L is often silent in the combination ALF, ALM, and OULD.

• Almond
• Balm
• Behalf
• Calf
• Chalk
• Could
• Folk
• Half
• Palm
• Salmon
• Should
• Stalk
• Talk
• Walk
• Would
• Yolk

Words With Silent N

The letter N is often silent when it appears at the end of a word preceded by the letter M (-MN).

• Autumn
• Column
• Condemn
• Damn
• Hymn
• Solemn

Words With Silent P

The letter P is often silent at the beginning of a word followed by S (PS-).

• Coup
• Cupboard
• Psychology
• Pneumonia
• Pseudo
• Psychiatrist
• Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Psychotic
• Receipt

Words With Silent T

• Apostle
• Bristle
• Bustle
• Castle
• Fasten
• Glisten
• Hustle
• Listen
• Moisten
• Often

Words With Silent U

The silent U is used to soften the letter G (GU-). It is also silent in most words with the structure -UIT or -UILT.

• Baguette
• Biscuit
• Build
• Building
• Built
• Circuit
• Disguise
• Guess
• Guest
• Guide
• Guild
• Guilt
• Guilty
• Guise
• Guitar
• Rogue
• Silhouette

Words With Silent W

The letter W is often silent when it is placed before the letter R (WR).

• Awry
• Playwright
• Sword
• Wrack
• Wrangle
• Wrap
• Wrapper
• Wrath
• Wreak
• Wreath
• Wreck
• Wrestle
• Wriggle
• Wring
• Wrinkle
• Wrist
• Writ
• Write / wrote / written
• Wrong