Primary 3 spelling words: prefixes

Primary 3 · 25 words · Updated 2026-09-16

1. unhappy
2. unable
3. unfair
4. unlock
5. unpack
6. undo
7. rewrite
8. replay
9. refill
10. reheat
11. rebuild
12. retell
13. dislike
14. disagree
15. disappear
16. distrust
17. preview
18. prepay
19. preheat
20. prepare
21. mislead
22. misplace
23. mistake
24. misread
25. misspell

How to practise these words

Read the list together first and talk about what each prefix does to the word underneath it: un- and dis- usually flip a word's meaning, re- means doing it again, pre- means doing it beforehand, and mis- means doing it wrongly. Once the pattern is familiar, listen to each word without looking at it and write down what is heard, then check the spelling against the list afterwards rather than while writing. A short, regular practice session works better than one long one, so five or six words a day across the week suits most Primary 3 children better than all twenty-five at once. Words that keep coming out wrong are worth a second pass on their own the next day, once the rest of the list feels comfortable.

Where these words come from

This list draws on common English prefixes and the word families that build on them, the kind of pattern public-domain word-frequency lists such as Dolch and Fry group together for early readers. It is not drawn from any particular school's own spelling programme.