Halloween Words That Start With C
18 Halloween words start with the letter C: Cat, Cape, Candle, Costume, Cobweb, Cauldron, Coffin, Crow, Creepy, Creature, Cackle, Crypt, Curse, Candy, Cider, Chocolate, Corn Maze and Caramel Apple. Halloween falls on October 31, and these are the words a preschooler actually meets on the night. Each one below has a short meaning, how many syllables it has, how to say it and a sentence to use it in, plus two free printables.
All 18 Halloween words that start with C
Spooky C words
- Cat
- Cape
- Candle
- Costume
- Cobweb
- Cauldron
- Coffin
- Crow
- Creepy
- Creature
- Cackle
- Crypt
- Curse
Other C words you will hear at Halloween
These are not spooky words, but a child hears every one of them on Halloween night.
- Candy
- Cider
- Chocolate
- Corn Maze
- Caramel Apple
| Word | What it means | Syllables | Say it like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | A small furry pet with whiskers and a tail. | 1 | kat |
| Cape | A loose piece of cloth worn over the shoulders. | 1 | kayp |
| Candle | A stick of wax with a string that burns. | 2 | KAN-dul |
| Costume | Clothes you wear to look like someone else. | 2 | KOS-toom |
| Cobweb | An old dusty spider web. | 2 | KOB-web |
| Cauldron | A big round pot for cooking over a fire. | 2 | KAWL-drun |
| Coffin | A long box a body is buried in. | 2 | KOF-in |
| Crow | A large black bird with a rough call. | 1 | kroh |
| Creepy | Something that gives you an uneasy feeling. | 2 | KREE-pee |
| Creature | Any living thing, usually a strange one in a story. | 2 | KREE-cher |
| Cackle | A loud rough laugh. | 2 | KAK-ul |
| Crypt | A stone room under a building where people are buried. | 1 | kript |
| Curse | Words said in a story to bring bad luck. | 1 | kurss |
| Candy | A small sweet treat. | 2 | KAN-dee |
| Cider | A drink made from pressed apples. | 2 | SY-der |
| Chocolate | A sweet brown treat made from cocoa. | 3 | CHOK-lit |
| Corn Maze | A path cut through a tall corn field to walk around in. | 2 | korn mayz |
| Caramel Apple | An apple covered in sticky caramel on a stick. | 5 | KAR-uh-mul AP-ul |
What each word means
Cat
The easiest costume in the house: black clothes, a headband and a drawn-on nose. In a sentence: “She went as a cat and painted whiskers on her cheeks.”
Cape
A towel and a safety pin makes one, which is worth knowing the night before a party. In a sentence: “His cape flew out behind him when he ran.”
Candle
A battery one inside a pumpkin gives the same glow with nothing to burn. In a sentence: “A candle flickered inside the pumpkin.”
Costume
Children often want to explain who they are before anyone asks, so practicing the sentence helps. In a sentence: “My costume this year is a dinosaur.”
Cobweb
A cobweb is the abandoned one. A web with a spider still in it is just a web. In a sentence: “Cobwebs hung in the corners of the old house.”
Cauldron
Almost nobody uses one now outside a story, which is why it belongs to witches in a child's mind. In a sentence: “The witch stirred something green in her cauldron.”
Coffin
Handle plainly if it comes up. Children usually ask what it is for, and a short true answer settles it. In a sentence: “A cardboard coffin stood by the front door.”
Crow
Real, common, and easy to spot on a walk, which makes the spooky version less spooky. In a sentence: “A crow sat on the fence and watched us.”
Creepy
Useful because it names a feeling that is not quite fear, which children often struggle to describe. In a sentence: “The mask on the shelf looked creepy in the dark.”
Creature
A safe word for anything a child cannot name yet, which is most of what turns up in stories. In a sentence: “Some creature rustled in the bushes.”
Cackle
Children can do this one, and doing it is how the word sticks. In a sentence: “The witch let out a long cackle.”
Crypt
Ends in two consonants as well as starting with them, which makes it the hardest word on this page to say. In a sentence: “The steps led down into a cold crypt.”
Curse
Only ever a story thing, and saying so out loud is usually enough. In a sentence: “The old book was said to carry a curse.”
Candy
The whole point of the night for most children, and the first word many of them will read here. In a sentence: “I traded my candy with my brother.”
Cider
Note the c sounds like s here, which is worth pointing out on a page about the letter c. In a sentence: “There was hot cider at the door.”
Chocolate
Most people say it in two beats rather than three, which is why the spelling surprises children. In a sentence: “She saved the chocolate bars for last.”
Corn Maze
A daytime October outing rather than a Halloween-night one, and less frightening than it sounds. In a sentence: “We got lost twice in the corn maze.”
Caramel Apple
The longest word on this page by some way, and worth clapping out syllable by syllable. In a sentence: “The caramel apple stuck to my teeth.”
Which C words are hardest for a preschooler to say?
Cat, Cape, Candle, Costume, Cobweb, Coffin, Curse, Candy and Cider each start with a single /c/ sound, so a three year old can usually copy them straight back. Crow, Creepy, Creature and Crypt open with an “cr” blend. A blend is two consonants run together with no vowel between them, and speech development guides such as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association put clusters like these later than single sounds. If your child is at the copying-back stage, start with Cat.
Chocolate and Caramel Apple are hard for a different reason. There is no blend to trip over: at three syllables they are simply a mouthful, and most children shorten them long before they say them in full.
How to use these C words with preschoolers
Say it, then find it
Say the word out loud and stretch the first sound: cat. Then ask your child to find something in the room that starts the same way. Hearing the sound and then finding it on something real ties the letter to something your child can already picture.
Sort the scary from the silly
Read the list together and let your child put each word in one of two piles: silly or spooky. There is no right answer, and the sorting is what makes them think about what the word actually means. It also gives you a gentle way to talk about being a little bit scared on purpose.
Trace it, then draw it
Use the tracing sheet below to write the 13 spooky words, then ask your child to draw one of them on the back. Writing the word and picturing it at the same time is what makes it stick.
Free printables: the Halloween C word list and tracing sheet
Two pages, A4, free to print with no sign-up. The word list has all 18 words in large type with a tick box beside each one, so a child can mark off the words they can read. The tracing sheet has the 13 spooky words, Cat, Cape, Candle, Costume, Cobweb, Cauldron, Coffin, Crow, Creepy, Creature, Cackle, Crypt and Curse, on handwriting rules to write over.
Word list
Tracing sheet
More on the letter C
This page is one letter of Halloween words A to Z. For letter formation and tracing practice, see letter C activities for preschoolers. For animal names beginning with the same letter, see animals that start with C, and for the winter equivalent see Christmas words that start with C.
Halloween words A to Z: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z
← Halloween words that start with B | Halloween words that start with D →
Frequently asked questions
What Halloween words start with C?
Cat, Cape, Candle, Costume, Cobweb, Cauldron, Coffin, Crow, Creepy, Creature, Cackle, Crypt, Curse, Candy, Cider, Chocolate, Corn Maze and Caramel Apple. All 18 are listed above with a short meaning for each.
Which Halloween C word is easiest for a preschooler?
Cat. It is one syllable, the first sound is easy to stretch out, and most children have already seen one, which fixes the word far faster than a definition does.
How many syllables are in these C words?
They run from one to five. Cat, Cape, Crow, Crypt and Curse are single syllables, which is where to start.
How do I teach Halloween words without frightening my child?
Start with the silly ones and leave the spooky ones until they ask. A costume, a pumpkin and a bucket of candy are Halloween to a four year old. If a word does worry them, let them draw it and give it a friendly face, which takes the fear out of it faster than telling them not to worry.
What age are these words for?
Three to six. Younger children will recognize the words when you say them long before they can read them, which is the point of tracing rather than copying.
