What characteristic defines sight words?

Sight words are defined as high-frequency words that students are encouraged to recognize immediately without needing to decode them phonetically. These words often appear frequently in written text, making them essential for reading fluency. Recognizing sight words allows readers to focus on comprehension and understand the larger context of what they are reading rather than getting bogged down by decoding each individual word.

In early literacy education, familiarity with sight words helps students develop reading confidence and speed, as these words often don't follow standard phonics rules and can be irregular in spelling, requiring memorization instead of phonetic decoding. Examples of sight words include "the," "and," "is," and "to," all of which come up frequently in children's literature and basic texts.

Other characteristics mentioned, such as complex phonics rules or low frequency usage, do not accurately describe sight words, which are typically designed to be known and recognized at a glance. Additionally, while many sight words are consistently spelled the same way, this is not a definitive characteristic that sets them apart from other words, as spelling consistency can be found in numerous types of words across the language.