Medial R Words for Speech Therapy

Word list

Words without competing sounds

• arc
• arch
• arm
• armed
• arms
• art
• arts
• barn
• bars
• bears
• board
• boards
• bored
• born
• brad
• brain
• brake
• brakes
• branch
• brand
• brands
• brass
• brave
• breach
• bread
• break
• breaks
• breast
• breath
• breed
• breeds
• brick
• bride
• bridge
• brief
• briefs
• bright
• bring
• brings
• broad
• broke
• bronze
• brook
• brooks
• brought
• brown
• browse
• brush
• carb
• card
• cards
• cars
• cart
• chairs
• charge
• charged
• charm
• charms
• chart
• charts
• cheers
• chrome
• cord
• cork
• corn
• course
• court
• courts
• crack
• craft
• crafts
• craig
• crash
• cream
• creek
• crest
• crew
• crime
• crimes
• crop
• crops
• cross
• crowd
• crown
• crude
• cruise
• cry
• dark
• doors
• draft
• drag
• drain
• draw
• drawn
• draws
• dream
• dreams
• dress
• dressed
• drew
• dried
• drink
• drinks
• drive
• drives
• drop
• dropped
• drops
• drove
• drum
• drums
• dry
• ears
• fares
• farm
• farms
• fears
• force
• forced
• ford
• forge
• fork
• form
• formed
• forms
• fort
• forth
• fourth
• frame
• framed
• frames
• frank
• fraud
• free
• freeze
• freight
• french
• fresh
• fridge
• friend
• friends
• frog
• from
• front
• frost
• fruit
• fruits
• grab
• grace
• grad
• grade
• grades
• grain
• grams
• grand
• grande
• grant
• grants
• graph
• graphs
• grass
• grave
• gray
• great
• greece
• greek
• green
• grew
• grey
• grid
• grip
• groove
• gross
• ground
• grounds
• group
• groups
• grove
• grow
• grown
• grows
• growth
• guard
• guards
• hard
• harm
• hart
• heart
• hearts
• horn
• horse
• marc
• march
• mark
• marked
• marks
• mars
• marsh
• mart
• norm
• north
• pairs
• park
• parks
• part
• parts
• peers
• phrase
• pierce
• pork
• port
• ports
• praise
• pray
• prayer
• prayers
• pre
• prep
• press
• pressed
• price
• priced
• pride
• priest
• prime
• prince
• print
• prints
• prize
• pro
• probe
• prompt
• proof
• pros
• proud
• prove
• proved
• scared
• scored
• scores
• scratch
• screen
• screens
• screw
• script
• scripts
• shared
• shares
• shark
• sharp
• short
• shorts
• smart
• sort
• sorts
• source
• spears
• sport
• sports
• spray
• spread
• spring
• springs
• sprint
• sri
• stars
• start
• starts
• stored
• stores
• storm
• straight
• strain
• strand
• strange
• strap
• stream
• streams
• street
• streets
• strength
• strengths
• stress
• stretch
• strict
• strike
• strikes
• string
• strings
• stripes
• strips
• stroke

Worksheet preview

About Medial R words

Medial R is the bridge between a sound a child can produce in a single syllable and a sound that survives in connected speech. The R here is surrounded on both sides, so coarticulation with the preceding sound can either help or undo a production that was clean in isolation.

Gliding shows up in this position too — carrot becomes cawwot — and it often persists here after initial R has resolved. That gap is normal and is one reason medial lists stay useful well into the later stages of an R program.

Practising Medial R

Two-syllable entries where R starts the second syllable, as in carrot and arrow, effectively give the child a fresh prevocalic R with a running start. Words where R closes a syllable before the next consonant are harder and sit better later in the sequence.

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 /r/ in the medial position?

Our dictionary lists 1886 medial /r/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.

What are some example medial /r/ words?

Examples include arc, arch, arm, armed, arms, art, arts, barn.

Do medial R words include r-controlled vowels?

No. These lists match the consonant R in each pronunciation. Words where R has merged into the vowel, such as bird or turtle, belong to the vocalic R lists instead.

When should a child move to medial R words?

Usually once initial R is reliable at the word level. There is no fixed rule — some children hold a medial R more easily than an initial one, which is worth probing before assuming an order.