English for Learners
Silent letters in English
Letters that are not pronounced in English words.
About 60% of English words contain a silent letter.
Silent letters are letters that are not pronounced, but they are there when you write the word.
Here is a list of common words with silent letters from A to Z.
The letters in red are silent.
| SILENT LETTERS | WORDS CONTAINING SILENT LETTERS |
| A | bread, dread, head, thread, spread, mountain, basically, logically, magically, tragically... |
| B |
aplomb, bomb, climb,
comb, crumb, debt, doubt, dumb, jamb, lamb,
limb, numb, plumb, subtle, succumb, thumb, tomb, womb |
| C | abscess, ascend, ascent, crescent; descend; descent, disciple, fascinate, fluorescent, incandescent, isosceles, luminescent, miscellaneous, muscle, obscene, resuscitate, scenario, scene, scent, science, scissors, sclerosis |
| D | handkerchief, handful, handsome, Wednesday |
| E | everyone,due, dye, every, everyone, everything, everywhere, pie, toe |
| G | align, assign, benign, campaign, champagne, cologne, consign, deign, design, feign, foreign, gnarl, gnash, gnat, gnaw, gnome, gnu, high, light, reign, resign, sign, though, through |
| H | ache, aghast, anchor, archeology, architect, archives, chaos, character, charisma, chemical, chemist, chemotherapy, chlorine, choir, chorale, cholera, chord, choreography, chorus, Christian, Christmas, chrome, echo, ghastly, ghost, heir, honest, honour, hour, loch, mechanic, mechanical, melancholy, monarch, monochrome, orchestra, orchid, psychic, psychiatrist, psychology, rhyme, rhythm, scheme, school, stomach, technical, technique, technology, thyme |
| K | knack, knapsack, knave, knead, knee, kneel, knell, knew, knickers, knife, knight, knit, knob, knock, knoll, knot, know, knowledge, knuckle |
| L | almond, balk, balm, calf, calm, chalk, could, folk, half, palm, psalm, salmon, should, talk, walk, would, yolk |
| N | autumn, column, condemn, damn, hymn, solemn |
| P | coup, pneumatic, pneumonia, psalm, pseudo, psyche, psychedelic, psychiatrist, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychotic, receipt |
| S | aisle, apropos, bourgeois, debris, fracas, island, isle, viscount |
| T | apostle, ballet, bristle, buffet, bustle, castle, Christmas, fasten, glisten, hustle, jostle, listen, moisten, mortgage, nestle, rapport, ricochet, rustle, soften, thistle, trestle, whistle, wrestle |
| U | baguette, biscuit, build, building, catalogue, colleague, dialogue, circuit, disguise, guard, guess, guest, guide, guild, guile, guillotine, guilt, guise, guitar, rogue, tongue |
| W | answer, awry, playwright, sword, two,
whole,
wrack,
wrangle,
wrap,
wrath,
wreath,
wreck,
wren,
wrench,
wrestle,
wretch,
wriggle,
wring,
wrinkle,
wrist,
write,
writhe,
wrong,
wrote,
wrought,
wrung,
wry |
See also: Intonation and stress