121+ Short U Words (Free Printable List)
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Get a free printable list of 121 one-syllable words with the short U sound. Read all about teaching the short U sound, get ideas for working with students, and then download a free pdf printable!
About the Short U Sound
Short /ŭ/ is a vowel sound. The sound is represented by the letter U, and it sounds like /ŭ/ – the sound we hear at the beginning of the words ‘umbrella’ and ‘up.’
You can also hear the sound in the middle of the words ‘pug,’ ‘bus,’ and ‘fluff.’
The /ŭ/ sound is heard in closed-syllables where a consonant follows a vowel, making the vowel sound short.
Short U Example Words:
- tub
- mud
- rug
- drum
- cut
- gull
Just like any vowel sound, the /ŭ/ sound is made with an open mouth and the jaw dropped, with nothing obstructing the sound. When teaching this sound, give students a mirror to see their mouths.
Along with a mirror, direct kids to your sound wall that includes a vowel valley. There are a lot of benefits to using a sound wall, and it will help them to see the connections between the sounds they hear and the letters that represent the sounds. This is called phoneme-grapheme correspondence.
A vowel valley is particularly helpful because short vowels (short a, short e, short i, short o, and short u), are often the trickiest!
Short U Words
The words included on the list are one-syllable words that include the /ŭ/ sound, organized by word families. The words on this list are CVC words and words with blends and digraphs.
-ub Words
| cub | hub | nub | pub |
| rub | sub | tub | club |
| grub | scrub | shrub |
-ud Words
| bud | cud | dud | mud |
| spud | stud | thud |
-ug Words
| bug | dug | hug | jug | lug |
| mug | mug | rug | tug | chug |
| drug | plug | smug | snug | thug |
-um Words
| bum | gum | hum | mum |
| rum | sum | yum | chum |
| drum | glum | plum | scum |
-un Words
| bun | fun | gun | hun |
| nun | pun | run | sun |
| shun | spun | stun |
-up Words
| up | cup | pup | sup | tup |
-ut Words
| but | cut | gut | hut |
| jut | glut | shut | smut |
-uck Words
| buck | duck | luck | muck | puck |
| suck | tuck | yuck | chuck | cluck |
| pluck | shuck | snuck | stuck | truck |
-ull Words
| dull | gull | hull | lull |
| mull | null | skull |
-ush Words
| gush | hush | lush | blush |
| brush | crush | flush | plush |
| shush | slush | smush |
-usk Words
| busk | cusk | dusk |
| husk | musk | tusk |
Other Words
| bus | Gus | yux | fund | bunt |
| hunt | punt | runt | grunt | fuss |
| puss | numb | much | such |
Teaching Tips
Use nonsense words. The words on this list are all real words, but don’t forget to use nonsense words with students, too!
Nonsense words are super helpful because kids are forced to rely on phonics features only, not context or familiarity.
R-Controlled vowels have a different sound. Remember that when the letter U is followed by R, the vowel will not represent the /ŭ/ sound. Instead, it will make the r-controlled vowel sound /ir/.
To learn more about teaching r-controlled vowels and r-controlled syllables.
More Vowel Resources
As an Orton-Gillingham Certified teacher, I always need targeted words that include the focused phonics concepts for my students to practice.
It’s hard to come up with words on the fly, so over the years I’ve developed lots of word lists – all organized by phonics skills! I use them for dictation, fluency, homework, sorting, assessment, and progress monitoring.
Get my Vowel Word Lists with 1600+ words! And while you’re at it, get Phonics Words Lists for all phonics skills (this resource also includes Google slides for students’ independent practice!)
Learn more about long and short vowels by visiting our other vowel posts, including the schwa sound! And here you’ll get a free vowel sort and free long and short vowel anchor charts!
Download & Print
DOWNLOAD TERMS: All of our resources and printables are designed for personal use only in homes and classrooms. Each teacher must download his or her own copy. You may not: Save our files to a shared drive, reproduce our resources on the web, or make photocopies for anyone besides your own students. To share with others, please use the social share links provided or distribute the link to the blog post so others can download their own copies. Your support in this allows us to keep making free resources for everyone! Please see our Creative Credits page for information about the licensed clipart we use. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our terms, please email us. Thank you!
👉 Get ALL of the printable lists: Short A, Short E, Short I, and Short O.
The Short U Word list is all Short A words.
Hi Amy,
You’ll find the Short U word list further down on another page of file you downloaded. It’s been updated now, so you download here again and you’ll only get the short U word list. Thanks for letting us know!
Katie and Laura