Am Word Family

Words that rhyme with ham, from jam and clam to diagram, with team and roam set apart.

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List 1: -am, short words (ham)

Words to learn. Read each word, cover it, write it, then check it.

  1. 1.amGuess where I am hiding this time.
  2. 2.camThe mechanic replaced a worn cam in the engine.
  3. 3.hamThin ham slices curled in the hot skillet.
  4. 4.jamA jar of peach jam sat on the windowsill.
  5. 5.ramThe ram had thick curled horns.
  6. 6.yamShe baked one large yam for supper.

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Next step Next family, -an: can, fan, planMore short a words: cat, map, plant

All 37 words

List 1: -am, short words (ham) 6

  • am Guess where I am hiding this time.
  • cam The mechanic replaced a worn cam in the engine.
  • ham Thin ham slices curled in the hot skillet.
  • jam A jar of peach jam sat on the windowsill.
  • ram The ram had thick curled horns.
  • yam She baked one large yam for supper.

List 2: two or three letters before -am (clam) 9

  • clam A clam squirted water on the mudflat.
  • cram Do not cram every sock into one drawer.
  • gram The kitchen scale showed one gram too many.
  • scram Raccoons scram when the porch light clicks on.
  • sham The pillow sham matched the striped quilt.
  • slam A gust made the shed door slam shut.
  • swam Two otters swam under the wooden dock.
  • tram A red tram rattled up the steep hill.
  • wham The stack of trays fell with a wham.

List 3: longer words that rhyme (exam) 12

  • anagram Listen is an anagram of silent.
  • diagram Label each part of the flower diagram.
  • exam Sharpen two pencils before the math exam.
  • hologram A shiny hologram flashed on the ticket.
  • kilogram The melon weighed just over one kilogram.
  • logjam A logjam blocked the river below the mill.
  • milligram The chemist measured the powder to the milligram.
  • monogram Her towel has a blue monogram stitched on.
  • parallelogram Tilt a rectangle sideways to draw a parallelogram.
  • pictogram The pictogram on the door showed a stairway.
  • telegram The old telegram was only six words long.
  • webcam Tilt the webcam so your face shows.
Show all 37 words (10 more)

List 4: ends in am, another sound (team, roam) 10

  • balsam The cabin smelled of fresh balsam branches.
  • bedlam The gym was bedlam after the final buzzer.
  • cream Pour a little cream over the sliced peaches.
  • dream In my dream the stairs turned into a slide.
  • foam Foam spilled over the top of the root beer.
  • roam Goats roam freely on the rocky hillside.
  • steam Steam fogged the bathroom mirror in seconds.
  • stream We hopped across the stream on flat rocks.
  • tangram Seven tangram pieces fit together into one square.
  • team Our team wore mismatched socks for luck.

How this list was compiled: Words chosen and sorted into 4 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 the 27 words on Lists 1 to 3 as ăm, the short a of ham. On List 4 it gives team, dream, cream, steam and stream long e, roam and foam long o, and bedlam, balsam and tangram a weak vowel (ə) in an unstressed last syllable. Its entry for the ending -gram reads "something written or drawn; a record", and a tangram is a square cut into five triangles, a square and a rhomboid: seven pieces. WORD FAMILY is used as in Wikipedia's Phonics article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics): words that share the vowel and the consonants after it. SOUND-ALIKES: jam (jamb) and team (teem); the dictionary gives each pair one pronunciation and Wiktionary lists each pair. LEFT OUT: program (a second pronunciation ends in the weak vowel), pram (a second word spelled the same has the a of father), lamb and jamb (the sound of the family in another spelling). 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

Short a and the letter m make the am word family: ham, jam, ram, yam and every word that rhymes with them. Three lists hold 27 such words, and a fourth sets team, roam and bedlam apart.

Read the full guide

Am word family list, short words first

List 1 has six short words: am, cam, ham, jam, ram, yam. List 2 puts two or three letters in front: clam, cram, gram, sham, slam, swam, tram, wham, scram. List 3 goes on to longer words that keep the rhyme, such as exam, webcam and logjam.

The -gram words: written things and weights

Nine words on List 3 end in gram. The American Heritage Dictionary enters -gram as an ending that means something written or drawn: a telegram is a message, a diagram a drawing, a monogram a design made of letters. In kilogram and milligram, gram is the unit of mass.

  • Jam, ram, cram, slam and scram double the m before an ending: jammed, ramming, crammed, slammed, scrammed.
  • Swam is the past tense of swim. Unlike swan, it keeps the short a of ham.

Questions and answers

Are these am word family worksheets for kindergarten?

List 1, the six shortest words, is the place to start in kindergarten, and List 2 comes next. Either prints as a word list, a test sheet or a missing letters sheet.

Is lamb an am family word?

By sound, yes: the American Heritage Dictionary gives lamb the ending of ham and no b sound. By spelling it ends in -amb, so it is not on these lists. Jamb, the side post of a doorway, sounds exactly like jam.

Do team and dream belong to the am word family?

No. They end in the letters am, but ea spells long e in team, dream, cream, steam and stream, and oa spells long o in roam and foam. All seven are on List 4, kept apart from the rhyming words.

Does program rhyme with ham?

Not always. The American Heritage Dictionary gives program two pronunciations: one ends like gram and the other has a weak vowel, so it is left off these lists. Diagram and telegram have the full short a only.

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