Halloween Words That Start With L
10 Halloween words start with the letter L: Lantern, Lurk, Legend, Lightning, Lair, Lollipop, Licorice, Leaves, Light and Laugh. 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 10 Halloween words that start with L
Spooky L words
- Lantern
- Lurk
- Legend
- Lightning
- Lair
Other L words you will hear at Halloween
These are not spooky words, but a child hears every one of them on Halloween night.
- Lollipop
- Licorice
- Leaves
- Light
- Laugh
| Word | What it means | Syllables | Say it like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lantern | A light inside a case you can carry. | 2 | LAN-tern |
| Lurk | To wait somewhere quietly without being seen. | 1 | lurk |
| Legend | An old story people tell that may not be true. | 2 | LEJ-und |
| Lightning | A bright flash in the sky during a storm. | 2 | LYTE-ning |
| Lair | The hidden place where a wild animal lives. | 1 | lair |
| Lollipop | A hard candy on a stick. | 3 | LOL-ee-pop |
| Licorice | A chewy black candy with a strong taste. | 3 | LIK-uh-rish |
| Leaves | The flat green parts of a plant that fall in autumn. | 1 | leevz |
| Light | What lets you see in the dark. | 1 | lyte |
| Laugh | The sound you make when something is funny. | 1 | laf |
What each word means
Lantern
The second half of jack-o-lantern, so learning it here makes the longer word easier later. In a sentence: “She carried a paper lantern down the path.”
Lurk
Always used about something waiting on purpose, which is what makes it uneasy rather than neutral. In a sentence: “Something seemed to lurk behind the shed.”
Legend
Useful for saying a story is old and retold rather than made up on the spot or true. In a sentence: “A legend said a ghost walked the bridge.”
Lightning
Said in two beats, not three, which is why children so often write lightening. In a sentence: “Lightning lit up the whole street.”
Lair
A den for something dangerous. A rabbit has a burrow, a monster has a lair. In a sentence: “The dragon went back to its lair.”
Lollipop
Three beats that bounce, which makes it a good word for clapping out syllables. In a sentence: “He picked the orange lollipop first.”
Licorice
Children usually love it or hate it, and the black kind is the Halloween one. In a sentence: “Nobody wanted the black licorice.”
Leaves
The plural of leaf changes the f to a v, which is worth showing side by side. In a sentence: “Dry leaves crunched under our shoes.”
Light
The opposite of nearly every other word in this silo, and the thing that ends the scary part. In a sentence: “We turned on the porch light.”
Laugh
Spelled with gh and said with an f, which is one of the odder spellings a child meets early. In a sentence: “We laughed at his silly costume.”
Which L words are hardest for a preschooler to say?
Lantern, Lurk, Legend, Lightning, Lair, Lollipop, Licorice, Leaves, Light and Laugh each start with a single /l/ sound, so a three year old can usually copy them straight back. If your child is at the copying-back stage, start with Lantern.
How to use these L words with preschoolers
Say it, then find it
Say the word out loud and stretch the first sound: lantern. 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 five 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 L word list and tracing sheet
Two pages, A4, free to print with no sign-up. The word list has all 10 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 five spooky words, Lantern, Lurk, Legend, Lightning and Lair, on handwriting rules to write over.
Word list
Tracing sheet
More on the letter L
This page is one letter of Halloween words A to Z. For letter formation and tracing practice, see letter L activities for preschoolers. For animal names beginning with the same letter, see animals that start with L, and for the winter equivalent see Christmas words that start with L.
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 K | Halloween words that start with M →
Frequently asked questions
What Halloween words start with L?
Lantern, Lurk, Legend, Lightning, Lair, Lollipop, Licorice, Leaves, Light and Laugh. All 10 are listed above with a short meaning for each.
Which Halloween L word is easiest for a preschooler?
Lantern. 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 L words?
They run from one to three. Lurk, Lair, Leaves, Light and Laugh 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.
