Ack Word Family – Words Ending in -ack, Back to Backpack

All 53 words

List 1: one letter before -ack (back) 7

back Scratch the pony's back with a stiff brush.
hack Hikers hack a narrow path through thick brambles.
jack Slide the jack under the flat tire first.
lack The desert hills lack shade at noon.
pack Pack wool mittens beside your rain boots.
sack A burlap sack of onions slumped by the door.
tack One brass tack pinned the map corner.

List 2: two letters before -ack (snack) 10

black A black kitten napped inside the guitar case.
clack Knitting needles clack softly during story hour.
crack A thin crack zigzagged across the frozen puddle.
knack My aunt has a knack for fixing zippers.
quack Seven ducklings quack whenever the gate squeaks.
shack The bait shack sells worms in paper cups.
slack Leave some slack in the kite string.
snack Pretzels make a salty snack after swim practice.
stack A wobbly stack of hatboxes reached the ceiling.
track Deer left a muddy track beside the creek.

Show all 53 words (36 more)

List 3: compound words that end in -back (horseback) 12

comeback Our chess club made a surprising comeback.
drawback The only drawback of the cabin was mosquitoes.
feedback The coach wrote helpful feedback on every card.
flashback The movie opened with a long flashback.
hardback The hardback atlas weighs more than my lunchbox.
horseback The ranger crossed the meadow on horseback.
paperback A dog-eared paperback lay open on the hammock.
piggyback Grandpa gave both twins a piggyback ride.
playback Press pause during playback to copy the notes.
quarterback The quarterback tossed a long spiral downfield.
setback A flat tire was only a small setback.
switchback Each switchback lifted the trail above the pines.

List 4: longer words that end in -ack (backpack) 12

attack The chess player planned an attack with her knight.
backpack My backpack still smells like last week's oranges.
backtrack We had to backtrack to find the dropped glove.
flapjack The cook flipped a flapjack onto my plate.
haystack Barn cats sleep on top of the haystack.
knapsack He tucked a compass into his knapsack.
lumberjack The lumberjack sharpened his axe before breakfast.
racetrack Go-karts buzzed around the tiny racetrack.
sidetrack Funny videos sidetrack me from my chores.
smokestack A lone smokestack rose above the old mill.
thumbtack A red thumbtack marks our town on the map.
unpack Unpack the groceries before the ice cream melts.

List 5: -ack inside a longer word (jacket) 12

backbone The fish skeleton showed a long thin backbone.
background Paint the background blue before adding the clouds.
blackberry Each blackberry stained my fingers purple.
blackbird A blackbird perched on the scarecrow's hat.
bracket One loose bracket made the bookshelf lean.
cackle Hens cackle loudly when the fox is near.
cracker Crumble one cracker over the tomato soup.
crackle Dry leaves crackle under our boots in October.
jacket Zip your jacket before the wind picks up.
package A soggy package waited on the doorstep.
packet Tear the seed packet along the dotted line.
tackle Dad keeps his fishing tackle in a green box.

How this list was compiled: Words chosen and sorted into 5 lists for Homeroom Tools. The choice, the sorting and the sentences are ours; no published list, program or workbook was opened or copied. SOUND AND SPELLING: every word was looked up on 14 October 2026 in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q= plus the word) for the sound of its ending and for a second spelling on the headword line, and each has an English entry in Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0). The dictionary writes the ending of all 41 words on Lists 1 to 4 as ăk, with short a: one syllable on Lists 1 and 2, a secondary stress mark on the last syllable of the compound words of Lists 3 and 4, and the main stress on the last syllable of unpack and attack. On List 5 the same ăk is the first, stressed syllable and another follows (jacket, jăk-ĭt). It writes knack as (năk). Its inflection lines add -ed and -ing with no change to every verb on Lists 1 to 4 (packed, tracking, quacked, unpacking). Its word histories derive piggyback from pickaback, pickback and pick pack, and the second part of flapjack from jack, a fellow; under jack it gives one who works in a specified manual trade, as in lumberjack. It defines a flapjack as a pancake and a sac as a pouch or pouchlike structure in an organism. It writes yak (yăk), plaque (plăk), kayak (kī-ăk), zodiac (zō-dē-ăk) and barrack (băr-ək). A WORD FAMILY here is a set of words that share a rime, which Wikipedia's Phonics article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics) gives as the vowel and the consonant sounds that follow it. SOUND-ALIKE: sack (sac); the dictionary gives both one pronunciation and Wiktionary lists the pair. LEFT OUT: rack (some of its meanings are also spelled wrack) and wrack (also rack), whack (a second pronunciation that begins hw), flack (also flak), soundtrack and backyard (also entered as two words), racket (also racquet), halfback and rucksack (a second pronunciation), yak, plaque, kayak and zodiac (the sound of the family in another spelling), repack (no entry). SENTENCES are ours, name no person, and none repeats a sentence in another list of this site (checked on 14 October 2026). Spellings are American. Licence: own work

How it works

Back, pack and sack start the ack word family, and 38 more words rhyme with them here, from snack and track to haystack and piggyback. A fifth list has jacket, cracker and other words with -ack inside.

Read the full guide

Ack word family words in five lists

List 1 puts one letter in front: back, hack, jack, lack, pack, sack, tack. List 2 puts two: black, clack, crack, knack, quack, shack, slack, snack, stack, track. List 3 is compounds that end in -back, such as horseback and paperback. List 4 has other long words: backpack, haystack, lumberjack, attack. List 5 keeps -ack inside: jacket, tackle, blackbird.

A silent k in knack, and no pig in piggyback

The American Heritage Dictionary writes knack as (năk), with no sound for the first k. It traces piggyback to an older pick pack. Jack can mean a fellow or a worker in a trade: that is the jack of flapjack and lumberjack. A flapjack, it says, is a pancake.

On Lists 1 to 4 a verb adds -ed and -ing with nothing doubled or dropped: packed, tracking, quacked, unpacking.
Sack and sac sound the same. A sac is a pouch inside a plant or an animal.

Questions and answers

Can I print ack word family worksheets?

Yes: as a Word list, a Test sheet, an ABC order sheet or a Missing letters sheet, one list to a sheet. The seventeen one-syllable words of Lists 1 and 2 come first.

Do rack and wrack sound the same?

Yes. The American Heritage Dictionary writes both as (răk), and it gives wrack as a second spelling for some meanings of rack. A test word needs one right spelling, so rack is not on these lists.

Is yak an ack family word?

By sound, yes: the dictionary writes yak as (yăk) and plaque as (plăk), the ending of back. Neither is spelled with -ack, so both are left off. Kayak and zodiac end in the same sound.

Do all words ending in ack rhyme with back?

Every word on Lists 1 to 4 does. One that does not is barrack: the dictionary writes it (băr-ək), with no stress on the last syllable and a weak vowel there.