Medial TH Words for Speech Therapy
Words carrying TH inside the word — mother, nothing. Both the voiced and voiceless TH appear here, and which one you get is largely predictable from the surroundings.
Also called word-medial TH, TH in the medial position, or TH in the middle of words.
- 64
- words
- 36
- competing-free
- 2–5
- syllables
All 64 Medial TH words
36 of 64 words contain the target without the sounds children commonly substitute for it
2-syllable · 36
- author
- authors
- bother
- breathing
- brother
- brothers
- clothing
- either
- ethics
- father
- fathers
- further
- gather
- gathered
- gothic
- leather
- method
- methods
- mother
- mothers
- neither
- northeast
- northern
- nothing
- other
- others
- python
- rather
- rhythm
- southeast
- southern
- weather
- whether
- within
- without
- worthy
3-syllable · 14
- another
- anything
- authentic
- authorized
- cathedral
- ethical
- everything
- furthermore
- gathering
- marathon
- motherboard
- otherwise
- sympathy
- together
4-syllable · 9
- algorithm
- algorithms
- authorities
- authority
- hypothesis
- mathematics
- nevertheless
- pathology
- unauthorized
5-syllable · 5
- authentication
- authorization
- hypothetical
- mathematical
- methodology
- 01author
- 02authors
- 03bother
- 04breathing
- 05brother
- 06brothers
- 07clothing
- 08either
/th/: 64 words · competing-free 36Generate a Medial TH 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)
Take Medial TH to the next level
Ready-made, pronunciation-checked practice beyond single words:
About Medial TH words
Between two vowels the TH is nearly always voiced — mother, brother, other, weather. Where TH sits next to another consonant, as in birthday and bathtub, it is usually voiceless. That regularity makes medial position useful for targeting one TH without hunting for words.
The common substitutions carry over from initial position: /f/ for voiceless TH gives birfday, and /d/ for voiced TH gives mudder. Both are typical in young children and become targets only when they persist.
Practising Medial TH
Intervocalic entries such as mother and feather let the child hold a voiced TH with vowels supporting the voicing on both sides. Consonant-adjacent entries are harder and give you the voiceless TH when that is the target.
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 /th/ in the medial position?
- Our dictionary lists 64 medial /th/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.
- What are some example medial /th/ words?
- Examples include author, authors, bother, breathing, brother, brothers, clothing, either.
- How do I find only voiced TH words?
- Look for TH sitting between two vowels — mother, other, weather, and brother are all voiced. Where TH stands next to another consonant, as in birthday or bathtub, it is normally voiceless, so the surrounding letters tell you which TH you have before you say the word.
- Why is the medial TH list short?
- TH is a relatively infrequent consonant in English, and the word-internal position is the least common of the three. The list holds every common word that qualifies rather than padding it with rare vocabulary.