Key takeaways
- The revised taxonomy has six levels: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create.
- Each level has its own action verbs. The verb you choose is what makes a learning objective measurable.
- Avoid vague verbs like 'understand,' 'know,' or 'learn' in objectives — you can't observe them.
- Match the verb to the thinking you want: low-level verbs for recall, high-level verbs for original work.
Bloom's taxonomy verbs are the action words you put at the start of a learning objective — the ones that tell you, and your students, exactly what success looks like. Write "students will understand fractions" and you have no way to check it. Write "students will compare two fractions using a number line" and you can see it in thirty seconds.
The original framework was published by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues in 1956. The version most teachers use today is the 2001 revision by Anderson and Krathwohl, which renamed the categories as verbs and moved Create to the top. This page lists the most useful verbs for all six levels, gives you an example objective for each, and shows a quick method for choosing the right one.
Cognitive levels in the revised taxonomy, from Remember up to Create.
Source: Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001
The six levels at a glance
| Level | What the student does | Sample verbs |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Remember | Recalls facts and basic concepts | define, list, name, recall, label |
| 2. Understand | Explains ideas in their own words | explain, summarize, classify, compare, paraphrase |
| 3. Apply | Uses knowledge in a new situation | solve, demonstrate, calculate, use, implement |
| 4. Analyze | Breaks information into parts | analyze, contrast, organize, distinguish, examine |
| 5. Evaluate | Justifies a decision or judgment | justify, critique, defend, appraise, prioritize |
| 6. Create | Produces new or original work | design, compose, develop, formulate, construct |
Action verbs for each level
Use these as a menu. Pick the verb that names the thinking you want, then build the rest of the objective around the content and the conditions. The full list below runs to 142 verbs across the six levels; two of them — compare and construct — appear at two levels each, because the same word can name different thinking depending on the task.
1. Remember
Retrieving facts, terms, and basic concepts from memory.
Verbs: define, list, recall, name, identify, label, recognize, state, match, recite, repeat, select, memorize, locate, quote, record, tell, choose, duplicate, highlight, retrieve, spell, count, reproduce.
Example objective: Students will label the parts of a plant cell on a diagram.
2. Understand
Explaining ideas or concepts in their own words.
Verbs: explain, summarize, describe, interpret, classify, compare, paraphrase, infer, illustrate, restate, discuss, predict, translate, exemplify, generalize, report, express, extend, review, convert, estimate, outline, annotate, retell.
Example objective: Students will summarize the main events of a short story in three sentences.
3. Apply
Using information in a new but similar situation.
Verbs: apply, demonstrate, solve, use, implement, calculate, execute, modify, construct, complete, sketch, dramatize, operate, compute, simulate, model, adapt, show, graph, chart, employ, perform, experiment, role-play.
Example objective: Students will solve two-step word problems involving multiplication and addition.
4. Analyze
Breaking material into parts and seeing how the parts relate.
Verbs: analyze, differentiate, organize, contrast, examine, categorize, distinguish, deconstruct, investigate, compare, structure, attribute, integrate, correlate, diagram, dissect, inspect, question, test, survey, trace, map, sort, isolate.
Example objective: Students will contrast the causes of two historical revolutions in a Venn diagram.
5. Evaluate
Making and defending a judgment based on criteria.
Verbs: evaluate, judge, critique, justify, defend, argue, appraise, assess, recommend, prioritize, rate, support, verify, validate, rank, refute, monitor, conclude, persuade, weigh, dispute, check, debate, grade.
Example objective: Students will justify which renewable energy source best suits their region, citing two pieces of evidence.
6. Create
Putting elements together to form something new.
Verbs: create, design, develop, compose, construct, generate, plan, produce, formulate, invent, hypothesize, devise, assemble, build, compile, author, draft, imagine, propose, publish, rearrange, synthesize, write, animate.
Example objective: Students will design an experiment to test how light affects plant growth.
Bloom's taxonomy words vs. verbs: are they different?
Search for Bloom's taxonomy words and you get the same thing as Bloom's taxonomy verbs: the action words listed above. Teachers use the two terms interchangeably and nothing hangs on the difference.
One distinction is worth keeping straight, though. The six level names were nouns in the original 1956 framework — Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation. Anderson and Krathwohl's 2001 revision rewrote them as verbs — Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create — so that a taxonomy of thinking names things students do. Those six are the level names. The action words inside each level are what you actually write into an objective. When a colleague asks for "the Bloom's words," they almost always mean the second kind.
The revision names the six levels and the 19 specific cognitive processes inside them; it does not publish a master verb list. Every long list you find, this one included, is a compilation built on top of that framework — which is why the totals differ from one list to the next.
How to write a learning objective with the right verb
- 1
Decide the level of thinking
Is this a recall lesson or a problem-solving one? A first exposure usually sits at Remember or Understand; a project sits at Create.
- 2
Pick one verb from that level
Choose a single observable verb from the lists above. One objective, one verb — don't stack 'understand and apply.'
- 3
Add the content
Name exactly what students act on: 'compare two fractions,' not 'compare numbers.'
- 4
Add the condition or measure
State how you'll see success: 'using a number line,' 'in a 3-sentence summary,' 'with 80% accuracy.'
- 5
Read it back as evidence
Ask: could I watch a student do this and tick it off? If not, the verb is too vague — swap it.
Skip the unmeasurable verbs
'Understand,' 'know,' 'learn,' 'appreciate,' and 'be aware of' can't be observed. Replace them with what the student will actually do.
Climb the levels across a unit
Start a unit with Remember and Understand, then move to Apply and Analyze, and finish with an Evaluate or Create task.
Match the verb to the assessment
If your objective says 'design,' a multiple-choice quiz won't prove it. The verb should fit how you plan to assess.
Use verbs to differentiate
Give the same content at different levels: some students 'list,' others 'compare,' others 'evaluate' — same topic, different demand.
Turn a verb into a full lesson plan
Choose a Bloom's level and Kuraplan drafts measurable objectives plus the activities to match.
Try the lesson plan generatorFrequently asked questions
They are action words — like list, explain, solve, analyze, justify, and design — grouped by the six levels of the revised taxonomy. You use them to write learning objectives that describe observable, measurable behavior.
Because you can't see understanding directly. Pick a verb that shows it instead — 'summarize,' 'explain,' or 'classify' — so you have evidence the learning happened.
Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. They run from simple recall up to producing original work. The 2001 revision by Anderson and Krathwohl turned the categories into verbs and put Create at the top.
Yes. 'Compare,' for example, can sit at Understand or Analyze depending on the task. What matters is the thinking the task actually requires, not the word alone.
One. A single, observable verb keeps the objective measurable. If you need a second action, write a second objective.
Yes. Teachers use both terms for the same thing: the action words you put at the front of a learning objective. The one related distinction is between the six level names — Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create — and the action words inside each level. When someone asks for the Bloom's words, they usually mean the action words.
There is no official count. The 2001 revision defines the six levels and the cognitive processes inside them, but it does not publish a verb list, so every list teachers use is a compilation and the totals differ. This page lists 142. What matters is choosing a verb you can observe, not working through every option.
The verbs at the top three levels — Analyze, Evaluate and Create. Words like contrast, deconstruct, critique, justify, design and formulate ask students to do something with knowledge rather than repeat it. If every objective in a unit sits at Remember or Understand, that is usually the signal to rewrite one of them with a verb from the top three.