Medial SH Words for Speech Therapy
Words carrying the SH sound inside the word — station, ocean, machine, special. Most of them are not spelled with sh at all, which makes this the clearest illustration of why these lists match sound rather than spelling.
Also called word-medial SH, SH in the medial position, or SH in the middle of words.
- 437
- words
- 323
- competing-free
- 2–7
- syllables
Starter set: 72 Medial SH words
One- and two-syllable words with no competing sounds, spread across the alphabet — enough to pick 10–20 targets for a session. The full list of 437 words is further down the page.
- assure
- bishop
- caution
- crucial
- dishes
- facial
- fashion
- fishing
- issue
- machine
- martial
- mission
- motion
- nation
- notion
- partial
- passion
- patient
- portion
- pushing
- racial
- washer
- washing
- wishes
- wishing
- worship
- addition
- admission
- commercial
- completion
- compression
- condition
- depression
- donation
- edition
- efficient
- emission
- fellowship
- finishing
- formation
- foundation
- furnishings
- inflation
- initial
- leadership
- location
- membership
- musician
- national
- nutrition
- official
- omissions
- partially
- partition
- partnership
- petition
- photoshop
- pollution
- position
- possession
- promotion
- proportion
- publishing
- quotations
- ratio
- regression
- relation
- technician
- tradition
- transition
- tuition
- vacation
- 01assure
- 02bishop
- 03caution
- 04crucial
- 05dishes
- 06facial
- 07fashion
- 08fishing
/sh/: 437 words · competing-free 323Generate a Medial SH practice pack
Pick an age band and a theme; the list you just read becomes picture cards with phrases and sentences, a no-prep game, a data sheet and a home letter, every word verified before the PDF is built.
- Picture cards: word, phrase, sentence
- Say & dab game
- Data sheet + probe
- Home practice letter (B&W)
04 · Full listShow all 437 Medial SH words
Grouped by syllable count, competing-free words marked
323 of 437 words contain the target without the sounds children commonly substitute for it
2-syllable · 52
- assure
- assured
- bishop
- brochure
- brochures
- cashiers
- caution
- crucial
- dishes
- facial
- fashion
- fishing
- flashers
- flashing
- issue
- issued
- issues
- machine
- machines
- martial
- mission
- missions
- motion
- nation
- nations
- notion
- partial
- passion
- patient
- patients
- portion
- portions
- precious
- pressure
- pushing
- racial
- scotia
- session
- sessions
- social
- spatial
- special
- specials
- species
- station
- stations
- threshold
- washer
- washing
- wishes
- wishing
- worship
3-syllable · 115
- addition
- additions
- admission
- admissions
- assurance
- citation
- citations
- commercial
- commission
- commissions
- completion
- compression
- condition
- conditions
- creation
- creations
- delicious
- depression
- discretion
- discussion
- discussions
- donation
- donations
- duration
- edition
- editions
- efficient
- emission
- emissions
- emotions
- expression
- expressions
- fellowship
- finishing
- fisheries
- formation
- foundation
- foundations
- furnishings
- impression
- inflation
- initial
- insertion
- judicial
- leadership
- location
- locations
- membership
- migration
- musician
- musicians
- national
- nationwide
- nutrition
- official
- officials
- omissions
- ownership
- partially
- partition
- partnership
- partnerships
- permission
- permissions
- petition
- photoshop
- physician
- physicians
- pollution
- position
- positions
- possession
- profession
- promotion
- promotions
- proportion
- publisher
- publishers
- publishing
- quotations
- ratio
- rational
- ratios
- regression
- relation
- relations
- rotation
- salvation
- scholarship
- scholarships
- solution
- solutions
- specialist
- specialists
- specialized
- specially
- specialties
- specialty
- sponsorship
- submission
- submissions
- sufficient
- taxation
- technician
- tradition
- traditions
- transition
- translation
- translations
- transmission
- tuition
- vacation
- vacations
- watershed
- workstation
4-syllable · 187
- acquisition
- acquisitions
- activation
- adaptation
- additional
- allocation
- animation
- annotation
- application
- applications
- appreciate
- arbitration
- artificial
- automation
- aviation
- beneficial
- calculation
- calculations
- calibration
- cancellation
- celebration
- circulation
- coalition
- combination
- combinations
- commissioner
- commissioners
- compensation
- competition
- competitions
- compilation
- complications
- composition
- computation
- concentration
- concentrations
- conditional
- conditioning
- confirmation
- congressional
- conservation
- consortium
- constitution
- consultation
- contribution
- contributions
- controversial
- conversation
- conversations
- corporation
- corporations
- correlation
- declaration
- definition
- definitions
- delegation
- demonstration
- designation
- destination
- destinations
- deviation
- disposition
- distribution
- distributions
- education
- efficiency
- efficiently
- elevation
- emotional
- establishing
- estimation
- evolution
- execution
- exhibition
- exhibitions
- expectations
- expiration
- explanation
- exploration
- federation
- generation
- generations
- graduation
- illustration
- illustrations
- immigration
- implications
- indication
- information
- initially
- initiative
- initiatives
- innovation
- innovations
- inspiration
- installation
- installations
- institution
- institutions
- insulation
- integration
- interracial
- invitation
- invitations
- irrigation
- isolation
- legislation
- limitation
- limitations
- litigation
- machinery
- medication
- medications
- meditation
- motivation
- nationally
- navigation
- nomination
- nominations
- nutritional
- obligation
- obligations
- observation
- observations
- occupation
- occupations
- officially
- operation
- operations
- opposition
- penetration
- politicians
- population
- populations
- positioning
- practitioner
- practitioners
- preparation
- presentation
- presentations
- preservation
- professional
- professionals
- promotional
- proposition
- publication
- publications
- radiation
- recognition
- recreation
- registration
- regulation
- regulations
- relationship
- relationships
- relaxation
- relocation
- replication
- reputation
- reservation
- reservations
- resolution
- resolutions
- restoration
- revelation
- revolution
- separation
- simulation
- simulations
- situation
- situations
- specializing
- stationery
- sufficiently
- syndication
- termination
- traditional
- transformation
- transportation
- validation
- valuation
- variation
- variations
- vegetation
- violation
- violations
- vocational
5-syllable · 76
- accommodation
- accommodations
- accreditation
- additionally
- administration
- affiliation
- appreciated
- appreciation
- appropriations
- association
- associations
- authentication
- authorization
- certification
- civilization
- classification
- collaboration
- communication
- communications
- computational
- configuration
- configurations
- congratulations
- consideration
- considerations
- consolidation
- constitutional
- contamination
- cooperation
- coordination
- determination
- discrimination
- documentation
- educational
- elimination
- evaluation
- evaluations
- examination
- examinations
- imagination
- implementation
- informational
- initiated
- institutional
- instrumentation
- international
- interpretation
- investigation
- investigations
- modification
- modifications
- negotiation
- negotiations
- notification
- notifications
- occupational
- operational
- optimization
- organisation
- organisations
- organization
- organizations
- orientation
- participation
- precipitation
- qualification
- qualifications
- recommendation
- recommendations
- recreational
- representation
- representations
- specification
- specifications
- utilization
- verification
6-syllable · 6
- characterization
- identification
- internationally
- organizational
- rehabilitation
- revolutionary
7-syllable · 1
- telecommunications
Take Medial SH to the next level
Ready-made, pronunciation-checked practice beyond single words:
About Medial SH words
The SH sound in medial position is carried overwhelmingly by endings — the -tion of station and nation, the -cial of special, the -ssion of mission. That is why this list is many times larger than the initial and final SH lists put together.
Those endings tend to sit in longer, later-acquired vocabulary, so medial SH words often carry a heavier linguistic load than the target sound itself. A three-syllable word can fail on syllable structure rather than on SH, which is worth ruling out before concluding the sound is unstable.
Practising Medial SH
The one- and two-syllable entries near the top of the list keep the vocabulary demand low while still giving a medial SH. Longer -tion words are useful later, particularly for older students who meet them in reading.
Acquisition ages: Crowe & McLeod (2020), American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Educational content — an SLP chooses the target for a specific child.
Therapy guides
Minimal pairs therapy
Minimal pairs examples by pattern, how a session runs, and a worked fronting example.
Read the guidePrint-and-go articulation activities
No-prep drill ideas that turn a word list into a full session.
Read the guideNo-prep teletherapy articulation
Screen-share friendly activities that use the same word lists online.
Read the guideFrequently asked questions
- How many words have /sh/ in the medial position?
- Our dictionary lists 437 medial /sh/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.
- What are some example medial /sh/ words?
- Examples include assure, bishop, caution, crucial, dishes, facial, fashion, fishing.
- Why are station and ocean on the SH list?
- Because both carry the SH sound in the middle — the -ti- of station and the -ce- of ocean are pronounced SH. Matching by sound rather than spelling is the only way to find these words.
- Why is the medial SH list so much longer than the others?
- English forms a large family of nouns with -tion, -sion, -cial and -tial endings, and every one of them carries a medial SH. Word-final SH, by contrast, appears in only a few dozen common words.