Medial K Words for Speech Therapy

Word list

Words without competing sounds

• asks
• banks
• bikes
• blacks
• blocks
• books
• box
• brakes
• breaks
• brooks
• bucks
• cakes
• checks
• chicks
• clicks
• clocks
• discs
• disks
• docs
• drinks
• fax
• fix
• flex
• flux
• folks
• fox
• jokes
• lakes
• likes
• links
• locks
• looks
• makes
• marks
• max
• mix
• oaks
• packs
• parks
• picks
• pix
• racks
• ranks
• risks
• rocks
• scale
• scales
• scan
• scanned
• scared
• scheme
• schemes
• school
• schools
• scoop
• scope
• score
• scored
• scores
• scratch
• screen
• screens
• screw
• scroll
• seeks
• six
• sixth
• ski
• skill
• skilled
• skills
• skin
• skins
• skip
• sky
• socks
• sox
• speaks
• specs
• squad
• square
• thanks
• thinks
• walks
• wax
• weeks
• works
• access
• accused
• acne
• acre
• acres
• across
• action
• actions
• aka
• anchor
• annex
• aqua
• arcade
• archive
• archived
• archives
• asking
• auction
• auctions
• axis
• backing
• backup
• bacon
• baker
• baking
• bangkok
• banking
• basics
• became
• because
• become
• becomes
• blackjack
• blocking
• booking
• bookings
• bookmark
• bookmarks
• bouquet
• boxes
• boxing
• breakdown
• breaking
• broken
• broker
• brokers
• checking
• chicken
• circle
• circles
• circus
• cisco
• classics
• clicking
• clinics
• comics
• complex
• conclude
• concord
• cookbook
• cookie
• cookies
• cooking
• cycle
• cycles
• darkness
• decade
• decades
• declare
• declared
• decline
• declined
• decor
• decrease
• deluxe
• describe
• described
• describes
• disclose
• disco
• discuss
• drinking
• earthquake
• echo
• eclipse
• eco
• emacs
• enclosed
• equal
• escape
• ethics

Worksheet preview

About Medial K words

Medial /k/ is where fronting is most sensitive to context. A back vowel on either side, as in cookie, helps hold the tongue back; a front vowel, as in monkey, pulls it forward and makes the fronted /t/ more likely.

That context sensitivity turns the medial list into a useful probe. Working through words with different surrounding vowels shows where the back contact is holding and where it collapses, which is more informative than a pass or fail on the sound as a whole.

Practising Medial K

Start with entries where a back vowel surrounds the /k/ — cookie is the classic example — and move to front-vowel contexts once the contact is stable. Slowing the word at the syllable boundary makes the back closure easier to hear.

Acquisition ages: Crowe & McLeod (2020), American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Educational content — an SLP chooses the target for a specific child.

Frequently asked questions

How many words have /k/ in the medial position?

Our dictionary lists 1282 medial /k/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.

What are some example medial /k/ words?

Examples include act, acts, asked, asks, backed, banks, bikes, blacks.

Why does my student say cookie correctly but not monkey?

Vowel context. The back vowels in cookie keep the tongue back where /k/ is made, while the front vowel in monkey pulls it forward toward the /t/ position.

Is medial K harder than initial K?

It depends on the surrounding vowels more than on the position itself. For a child who fronts, a back-vowel medial word is often easier than any initial word.