Halloween Words That Start With F
12 Halloween words start with the letter F: Fangs, Fog, Fear, Full Moon, Fright, Freaky, Frankenstein, Face Paint, Flashlight, Fairy, Fun-size and Fortune Teller. 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 12 Halloween words that start with F
Spooky F words
- Fangs
- Fog
- Fear
- Full Moon
- Fright
- Freaky
- Frankenstein
Other F words you will hear at Halloween
These are not spooky words, but a child hears every one of them on Halloween night.
- Face Paint
- Flashlight
- Fairy
- Fun-size
- Fortune Teller
| Word | What it means | Syllables | Say it like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fangs | Long pointed teeth. | 1 | fangz |
| Fog | Thick cloud sitting close to the ground. | 1 | fog |
| Fear | The feeling of being scared. | 1 | feer |
| Full Moon | When the moon looks like a complete circle. | 2 | FULL moon |
| Fright | A sudden feeling of fear that passes quickly. | 1 | frite |
| Freaky | Strange in a way that makes you look twice. | 2 | FREE-kee |
| Frankenstein | A make-believe monster built out of parts and brought to life. | 3 | FRANK-en-styne |
| Face Paint | Colored paint made for drawing on skin. | 2 | FAYSS paynt |
| Flashlight | A small light you carry in your hand. | 2 | FLASH-lite |
| Fairy | A tiny make-believe person with wings. | 2 | FAIR-ee |
| Fun-size | A candy bar made smaller than usual. | 2 | FUN-size |
| Fortune Teller | Someone who pretends to tell you what happens next. | 4 | FOR-chun TELL-er |
What each word means
Fangs
Vampires have them in stories, and so do real snakes. In a sentence: “The vampire opened his mouth and showed two long fangs.”
Fog
It makes shapes hard to see, which is why it turns up in every spooky story. In a sentence: “Thick fog rolled in and we could not see the end of the path.”
Fear
Naming the feeling out loud is often what makes it smaller for a young child. In a sentence: “Fear is the feeling you get when something jumps out at you.”
Full Moon
It happens about once a month and makes everything outside a little brighter. In a sentence: “A full moon lit up the whole street on Halloween night.”
Fright
A fright is over in seconds, which is what makes it different from being properly scared. In a sentence: “The jumping spider gave me a fright.”
Freaky
Children usually meet this word from older siblings before they meet it in a book. In a sentence: “That mask looks freaky in the dark.”
Frankenstein
He is tall, green in most pictures, and walks with stiff legs. In the original story Frankenstein is the scientist who builds the monster, and the name has been used for the monster itself ever since. In a sentence: “Frankenstein walked across the yard with stiff, straight legs.”
Face Paint
Look for paint sold for skin rather than craft paint, and try a small patch on an arm the day before if your child has not worn it. In a sentence: “She used green face paint to look like a witch.”
Flashlight
This is the thing your child will actually want to hold on the night, which makes it an easy word to teach while you walk. In a sentence: “Take a flashlight so you can see the sidewalk.”
Fairy
It is one of the most-chosen costumes for children who do not want anything scary. In a sentence: “He dressed as a fairy with silver wings.”
Fun-size
The bars are made smaller so a house can hand out more of them, which is why the bucket fills up so fast. In a sentence: “I got three fun-size chocolate bars in my bucket.”
Fortune Teller
The folded paper game children play at school is also called a fortune teller, so the word may already be familiar. In a sentence: “The fortune teller looked into her glass ball.”
Which F words are hardest for a preschooler to say?
Fangs, Fog, Fear, Full Moon, Face Paint, Fairy and Fun-size each start with a single /f/ sound, so a three year old can usually copy them straight back. Fright, Freaky and Frankenstein open with an “fr” blend, and Flashlight opens with an “fl” 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 Fangs.
Fortune Teller is hard for a different reason. There is no blend to trip over: at four syllables it is simply a mouthful, and most children shorten it long before they say it in full.
How to use these F words with preschoolers
Say it, then find it
Say the word out loud and stretch the first sound: fangs. 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 seven 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 F word list and tracing sheet
Two pages, A4, free to print with no sign-up. The word list has all 12 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 seven spooky words, Fangs, Fog, Fear, Full Moon, Fright, Freaky and Frankenstein, on handwriting rules to write over.
Word list
Tracing sheet
More on the letter F
This page is one letter of Halloween words A to Z. For letter formation and tracing practice, see letter F activities for preschoolers. For animal names beginning with the same letter, see animals that start with F, and for the winter equivalent see Christmas words that start with F.
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 E | Halloween words that start with G →
Frequently asked questions
What Halloween words start with F?
Fangs, Fog, Fear, Full Moon, Fright, Freaky, Frankenstein, Face Paint, Flashlight, Fairy, Fun-size and Fortune Teller. All 12 are listed above with a short meaning for each.
Which Halloween F word is easiest for a preschooler?
Fangs. 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 F words?
They run from one to four. Fangs, Fog, Fear and Fright 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.
