edu|Kate Singapore · 16 age guides · 200 target words in every guide
Find a few useful words, explore what they mean, and connect them with something you see, read or do. Every guide opens with its complete word bank, followed by explanations, worked examples and practical questions.
Looking for a different vocabulary resource? Explore the wider Vocabulary Learning System. For a larger reference collection, browse the 2,000-word lists by age 1–24 on eduKateSG. These collections serve different purposes; age labels are not learning deadlines.
Find the vocabulary guide you need
The series contains 3,200 distinct target headwords. Age labels organise this editorial collection; they are not developmental standards, tests or learning deadlines. Adults can supply the reading and conversation for young children.
Choose an age: all 16 vocabulary guides
Use age as a starting point, then choose words and examples that fit the reader’s experience. Familiar words should continue to appear throughout conversation and practice.
Ages 1–4 · Familiar things, actions and relationships
| Guide | Explore | A practical connection |
|---|---|---|
| Age 1 | People, objects and everyday actions | Connect a familiar cup with a request and a shoe with putting it on. |
| Age 2 | Properties, positions and relationships | Carry a light basket together, then describe where it is and how its weight changes. |
| Age 3 | Events, reasons and explanations | Explain why a toy car cannot pass under a bridge, what changes and what happens next. |
| Age 4 | Clues, materials and support | Build a small card-and-block bridge and discuss what supports it. |
Ages 5–8 · Purposes, information and choices
| Guide | Explore | A practical connection |
|---|---|---|
| Age 5 | Purpose, plans and clear communication | Pack for an outing and give a reason for each item. |
| Age 6 | Finding information, sorting and processes | Sort familiar objects by an agreed feature, then change the grouping rule. |
| Age 7 | Comparing choices and giving reasons | Compare two routes and explain which fits the traveller and the day. |
| Age 8 | Systems, models and possible explanations | Add useful details to a map for someone travelling with a buggy. |
Ages 9–12 · Explanations, evidence and models
| Guide | Explore | A practical connection |
|---|---|---|
| Age 9 | Water, shared places and meaningful counts | Distinguish the whole neighbourhood group from activity participants and helpers. |
| Age 10 | Ambiguity, viewpoints and criteria | Make clear whether the speaker is using the binoculars or Mia is carrying them. |
| Age 11 | Information checks, causes and constraints | Check the original notice and full date before relying on a forwarded closure message. |
| Age 12 | Models, assumptions and data | Explain what a scaled front-view chair drawing shows and what it leaves out. |
Ages 13–16 · Shared rules, decisions and transfer
| Guide | Explore | A practical connection |
|---|---|---|
| Age 13 | Roles, rules and everyday agreements | Separate eligibility for a workshop draw from a confirmed reservation. |
| Age 14 | Sources, measurements and change over time | Check whether three matching accounts provide independent support or copy one source. |
| Age 15 | Trade-offs, fairness and uncertainty | Distinguish a change in the number of incomplete kits from a change in their proportion. |
| Age 16 | Transfer, synthesis and independent reasoning | Compare a book contents page with an app menu, then name where the analogy stops. |
Start the five-step routine · Explore the wider Vocabulary Learning System
How to use the word banks
Open the seven sections on using the word banks
Start with a question or situation you want to explain. These links take you to guides with relevant worked examples; use the support that makes a guide useful, whatever the reader’s age.
| What would you like to do? | Open a relevant guide |
|---|---|
| Name familiar things and describe where they are | Age 1 · Age 2 |
| Explain an event or test a simple idea | Age 3 · Age 4 |
| Give instructions and find information | Age 5 · Age 6 |
| Compare choices and explain what is fair | Age 7 · Age 15 |
| Use a map, diagram or model | Age 8 · Age 12 |
| Read conditions and clear up a confusing message | Age 9 · Age 10 |
| Check a claim, source or measurement | Age 11 · Age 14 |
| Understand rules, roles and everyday agreements | Age 13 |
| Apply what you know in a new situation | Age 16 |
Prefer to browse by age? Open the complete age index. For a short activity, try the five-step routine.
Knowledge includes words, facts and experiences you can draw on. Understanding involves making sense of their relationships: what something does, why a condition matters, how one event could affect another, or where an explanation stops applying.
Consider a notice that says a place is reserved only after confirmation. Knowing what reservation means is useful. Understanding this notice also requires connecting the word with its condition: sending an application has not yet secured the place.
A word gives you a way to express that connection. It does not supply missing facts. If the notice omits the confirmation date, the useful next step is to ask, rather than assume the definition contains the answer.
This is the purpose of the series: use vocabulary to make an observation, question or explanation clearer. A long word is helpful when it adds a necessary distinction. Plain language remains useful throughout.
Choose two or three related words, or stay with one if that gives you enough to discuss. The following is a suggested routine, with no required daily count.
- Find a reason to use the word. Start with a picture, a conversation, a hobby, a notice or something that happened.
- Explain one useful meaning. Use familiar language and point to the part of the situation that makes the meaning visible.
- Compare a different case. Change one detail. Does the same word still fit? Explain what changed.
- Use the connection. Describe the situation, improve a message or ask a question. Speech, drawing and shared reading are all options.
- Return and check. On another occasion, revisit the meaning and try another example. Offer a cue when needed, then clarify the uncertain part.
The Education Endowment Foundation’s primary literacy guidance and its summary of recommendations recommend explicit vocabulary teaching, repeated encounters and opportunities to use words. That classroom guidance informs this practical suggestion; it does not validate these age banks or prescribe a household timetable.
These are invented illustrations for discussion.
Early childhood: a position in a picture
A picture shows a cat under a chair. An adult points and says, “The cat is under the chair.” Another picture shows the cat beside it. The adult can name the changed position and follow the child’s interest. There is no need to demand a definition or a spoken answer. The conversation gives the word a visible relationship.
Primary years: an explanation after rain
A child notices water remaining on one part of a path. Runoff and drainage help describe possible movements of water. They do not prove that a particular drain is blocked. Ask what can actually be seen and what remains a possible explanation. The useful distinction is between describing an observation and establishing its cause.
Teen years: a claim about a changing total
A chart shows a project’s cumulative progress. Its total rises, but smaller amounts are being added at each session. Knowing that cumulative means a running total helps the reader question a claim that the team is becoming faster. The next question concerns the additions and session lengths, not simply the height of the final point.
Each example moves from a word to a relationship and then to a useful question. Choose the level of detail that makes the present situation clearer.
The no-repeat rule applies only to the opening target banks. Ordinary explanations, stories and practice should reuse familiar vocabulary. Do not stop using an earlier word because a birthday has passed or because it appears in another guide.
Return to a distinction when a new situation gives it a purpose. Temporary might describe a court closure, a display arrangement or a club procedure. Check what is intended to end in each case; the surrounding conditions may differ.
The National Research Council’s chapter on learning and transfer explains that learning in one setting does not automatically carry over to another. It discusses varied contexts and contrasting cases. Here, the practical question is: “Which part of the earlier example still fits, and what must I check again?”
Leave a short note about the connection, rather than marking the whole child or word as permanently mastered: “Explained why applying does not confirm a place” or “Needed help distinguishing today’s addition from the running total.”
On the next visit, choose the route that fits:
- The meaning is unclear: return to the explanation and a concrete example.
- The meaning is clear but the word is missing: offer the word, connect it again and continue the conversation.
- The first example is familiar: change the setting or one important condition.
- A new interest has appeared: use the age index to find another relevant cluster.
For other vocabulary resources, continue to the eduKate Vocabulary Learning System. This hub specifically organises the 200-word guides whose titles end with Linking Understanding to Knowledge.
Must every child finish all 200 words at each age?
No. The banks provide possible targets. Use a few that fit the reader’s experiences and questions; leave others for a more useful occasion.
Does “Top” mean the words are scientifically ranked?
No. The titles identify an editorial selection. The series does not claim these are the statistically most frequent or scientifically best 200 words for each birthday.
Are all 3,200 words entirely unrelated?
No. The headword entries are distinct, but words can share roots, overlap in meaning or describe connected ideas. Those relationships can become useful discussion points.
Can we use another language?
Yes. Discuss the idea in language that makes the connection clear, then connect the English term with the intended meaning. Check the sense in context rather than assuming every translation works in every sentence.
What if the adult does not know a word?
Check a dependable dictionary or a relevant source together. Find the sense that fits the situation and acknowledge anything that remains uncertain.
Does finishing Age 16 complete vocabulary mastery?
No. The sequence finishes its opening banks at Age 16. Readers can continue discovering meanings, revising explanations and using familiar words in new situations.
Sources and series checks
- Education Endowment Foundation: Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 — Primary classroom guidance on explicit teaching, repeated encounters and vocabulary use; not validation of the editorial age banks.
- National Research Council (2000): How People Learn, Learning and Transfer — Research synthesis on the conditions of transfer; cited narrowly for applying learning across settings.
Series audit: 3 November 2026. All sixteen published opening banks were checked against the cumulative register: 200 headwords each, 3,200 distinct entries overall. This verifies the collection’s counts and coverage; it does not establish a developmental norm or a scientifically ranked word list.