What is a sight word vocabulary?

A sight word vocabulary is the bank of vocabulary (the collection of words) that a person can instantly recognize with 100% accuracy. A person’s sight word vocabulary consists of words that do not have to be decoded, the process of translating print (seeing the letters and knowing their sounds) to the patterns of syllables and words. People often mix up sight words (the actual words that are most frequently used in beginning reading text and compiled in any number of lists) with sight word vocabulary (i.e., the bank of vocabulary that an individual person knows how to read).