Ed Word Family

Words that rhyme with bed, from red and sled to bobsled, with seed and hundred set apart.

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List 1: -ed, three letters (bed)

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

  1. 1.bedThe cat claimed the middle of the bed.
  2. 2.fedWe fed the hens before breakfast.
  3. 3.ledA lantern led us along the trail.
  4. 4.redA red kite snagged on the chimney.
  5. 5.wedThe couple will wed in a rose garden.

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Next step The -ed ending: jumped, played, wantedShort e spelled ea: head, bread, feather

All 45 words

List 1: -ed, three letters (bed) 5

  • bed The cat claimed the middle of the bed.
  • fed We fed the hens before breakfast.
  • led A lantern led us along the trail.
  • red A red kite snagged on the chimney.
  • wed The couple will wed in a rose garden.

List 2: two or three letters before -ed (sled) 8

  • bled The dye bled out of the new jeans.
  • bred The farmer bred goats for soft wool.
  • fled The rabbit fled when the gate squeaked.
  • pled The puppy's eyes pled for one more treat.
  • shed Rakes and shovels hang inside the shed.
  • shred Shred the old newspaper for the hamster cage.
  • sled Two cousins shared one long wooden sled.
  • sped A delivery van sped past the bakery.

List 3: bed, shed and sled in longer words (seabed) 10

  • bobsled The bobsled team pushed off at the bell.
  • cowshed Fresh straw covered the cowshed floor.
  • flatbed A flatbed truck hauled the yellow tractor.
  • riverbed Smooth pebbles lined the dry riverbed.
  • roadbed Workers packed gravel into the roadbed.
  • seabed Crabs scuttle across the sandy seabed.
  • streambed Minnows darted along the shallow streambed.
  • toolshed The wheelbarrow leans against the toolshed.
  • watershed Rain from the whole watershed drains into this river.
  • woodshed Stack the split logs in the woodshed.
Show all 45 words (22 more)

List 4: other longer words that rhyme (moped) 10

  • biped An ostrich is a tall, fast biped.
  • infrared The infrared lamp kept the chicks warm.
  • misled The crooked arrow misled the hikers.
  • moped He rode a small moped to the market.
  • newlywed The newlywed pair danced the first waltz.
  • overfed The overfed goldfish swam in slow circles.
  • purebred Their purebred collie won a blue ribbon.
  • quadruped A horse is a quadruped with hooves.
  • thoroughbred A thoroughbred galloped around the dirt track.
  • underfed The stray kitten looked thin and underfed.

List 5: ends in ed, another sound (seed, hundred) 12

  • bleed Wet markers bleed through thin paper.
  • breed Which breed of dog has curly fur?
  • crooked The crooked fence post leans to the left.
  • deed Returning the lost glove was a kind deed.
  • feed Feed the fish a pinch of flakes.
  • greed Greed made the king count coins all night.
  • hundred One hundred ants marched across the path.
  • jagged Jagged rocks poked through the surf.
  • need You need both hands for this ladder.
  • rugged A rugged trail wound up the canyon.
  • seed Push each seed into the damp soil.
  • weed A tall weed grew through the sidewalk crack.

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 the 33 words on Lists 1 to 4 as ĕd, the short e of bed, and puts a stress mark on the last syllable of every word on Lists 3 and 4. On List 5 it gives seed, feed, need, weed, deed, bleed, breed and greed long e (ēd) and hundred, crooked, rugged and jagged a short i (ĭd) in an unstressed last syllable. PAST FORMS: its entries give fed as the past of feed, led of lead, bled of bleed, bred of breed and fled of flee, and sped and pled as past forms of speed and plead. Its entry for the ending -ped reads "foot", and it derives moped from motor and pedal. 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: bred (bread), seed (cede), need (knead, kneed) and weed (we'd); the dictionary gives the words of each set one pronunciation and Wiktionary lists each set. Red and led are listed without one: read and lead are each spelled one way and said two ways. Moped is the motorbike, said in two syllables; the same letters are also the past of mope. LEFT OUT: head, bread and said (the sound of the family in another spelling), daybed and dogsled (also entered as two words). 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

Bed, red and sled share a short e and a d, which makes them the ed word family. Four lists here hold 33 rhyming words, and a fifth keeps seed, need and hundred apart.

Read the full guide

Ed word family words, list by list

List 1 is five three-letter words: bed, fed, led, red, wed. List 2 puts two or three letters in front: bled, bred, fled, shed, shred, sled, sped, pled. List 3 builds on bed, shed and sled, as in seabed and woodshed. List 4 has other long words: moped, newlywed, infrared.

Fed, led, fled: past forms with a shorter vowel

Seven words on Lists 1 and 2 are past forms of other verbs in the American Heritage Dictionary: fed from feed, led from lead, bled from bleed, bred from breed, fled from flee, sped from speed and pled from plead. Every one of those present forms has long e, which is why feed, bleed and breed stand on List 5.

  • In biped and quadruped, ped means foot: two feet and four. Moped is different: the dictionary builds it from motor and pedal.
  • Shed, shred, sled and wed double the d: shedding, shredded, sledding, wedding.

Questions and answers

Can I print ed word family worksheets?

Yes. List 1 (bed, red, wed) and List 2 (sled, shed, fled) make a first pair of sheets. Print either as a Word list, a Test sheet, an ABC order sheet or a Missing letters sheet.

Do red and read sound the same?

Sometimes. Read in the past, as in I read it yesterday, is (rĕd) in the American Heritage Dictionary, the same as red. Lead the metal is (lĕd), the same as led. In a test, the sentence tells you which word to write.

Is jumped an ed family word?

No. In jumped and played the letters ed are an ending added to a verb. The dictionary prints both as one syllable, so the e is not heard at all.

Do head and said rhyme with bed?

Yes: the dictionary gives head (hĕd), bread (brĕd) and said (sĕd) the ending of bed. They are spelled with ea and ai, so they are not on these lists. Bred, on List 2, sounds exactly like bread.

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