Medial Z Words for Speech Therapy

Word list

Words without competing sounds

• caused
• closed
• pleased
• raised
• used
• accused
• advised
• asthma
• bizarre
• brazil
• browser
• browsers
• browsing
• busy
• causes
• causing
• choosing
• chosen
• closes
• closing
• composed
• confused
• crazy
• cruises
• cuisine
• daisy
• desert
• deserve
• design
• designed
• designs
• disease
• dozen
• dozens
• easy
• enclosed
• enzyme
• exact
• exam
• exams
• exec
• exempt
• exit
• frozen
• fuzzy
• gazette
• hazard
• hazards
• housing
• husband
• imposed
• jersey
• laser
• lazy
• lenses
• losing
• music
• observe
• observed
• opposed
• ozone
• phases
• phrases
• plasma
• plaza
• pleasant
• poison
• posing
• present
• preserve
• prison
• prizes
• proposed
• puzzle
• puzzles
• quizzes
• raises
• raising
• reason
• reasons
• refused
• reserve
• reserved
• reserves
• resolve
• resolved
• resort
• result
• resume
• resumes
• revised
• rising
• roses
• transit
• translate
• transmit
• user
• users
• using
• visa
• visit
• wisdom
• wizard
• absorption
• advisor
• advisors
• amazing
• amazon
• analyzed
• appraisal
• arising
• composer
• composite
• cosmetic
• deposit
• designer
• designers
• designing
• desire
• desired
• diseases
• easier
• easily
• exactly
• examine
• examined
• examines
• example
• examples
• exemption
• exhibit
• exotic
• horizon
• lesbian
• lesbians
• limousines
• magazine
• magazines
• museum
• museums
• musical
• musician
• musicians
• newsletter
• newsletters
• newspaper
• newspapers
• observer
• opposite
• organized
• physical
• physician
• physicians
• position
• positions
• positive
• possession
• presented
• presenting
• presently
• president
• prisoner
• prisoners
• proposal
• proposals
• realized
• reasoning
• recognised
• recognized
• represent
• reservoir
• resident
• resulted
• resulting
• tourism
• transaction
• transactions
• transition
• translated
• translation
• translations
• username
• visible
• visited
• visiting
• visitor
• visitors
• acquisition
• acquisitions
• advertisement
• advertiser
• advertisers
• advertising
• advisory
• alexander
• anxiety
• characterized
• composition
• designated
• designation
• desirable
• enterprises
• examining
• executive
• executives
• horizontal
• invisible
• journalism
• mechanism
• mechanisms
• observation
• observations
• opposition
• organisms
• organizer
• organizing
• physically
• positioning
• prerequisite
• presentation
• presentations
• preservation
• presidential
• proposition
• reasonable
• reasonably
• represented
• representing
• reservation
• reservations
• residential
• resolution
• resolutions
• terrorism
• examination
• examinations
• metabolism
• optimization
• organisation
• organisations
• organization
• organizations

Worksheet preview

About Medial Z words

/z/ is the voiced partner of /s/ and comes in at the same age — 90% of children produce it by 4;11 (Crowe & McLeod, 2020). Because the two sounds share tongue placement and differ only in voicing, the common error is devoicing: busy drifts toward bussy.

Between vowels the vocal folds are already vibrating on both sides, so medial position tends to support voicing rather than fight it. That makes intervocalic Z a practical place to establish the voiced-voiceless contrast before taking it to word endings, where devoicing is far more persistent.

Practising Medial Z

A hand on the throat gives immediate feedback here: the buzz should continue right through the middle of the word. Contrasting a medial Z word with its S counterpart makes the target audible in a way a single word rarely does.

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 /z/ in the medial position?

Our dictionary lists 310 medial /z/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.

What are some example medial /z/ words?

Examples include caused, closed, pleased, raised, sized, used, accused, advised.

Why are busy and music on a Z list?

Because both are pronounced with a /z/ sound despite being spelled with s. These lists match pronunciation, so they catch the many English words where the letter s carries a Z.

Is there an initial Z word list?

Not as a published list. English has very few common words beginning with /z/ — zoo, zebra, zipper and a handful more — too few to make a word list worth working from.