Some of the basic sight word lists which are being used or which might be extensively implemented in the future are described in this paper. The basic criterion used to define a good sight word list is that it contains words which appear with high frequency in children's materials at the beginning reading levels as well as at higher levels. In addition to descriptions of the lists, information on how each was derived is given. The kinds of research that have been conducted on such lists, especially on learnability or difficulty, and some of the implications of this research for classroom teachers are also presented. (TO)