Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs: The Complete List by Level (2026 Guide)

TL;DR: Key takeaways

• Bloom’s taxonomy verbs are action words that describe exactly what a learner should be able to do at each level of thinking, from remembering facts to creating new work.
• They turn vague goals such as “understand fractions” into measurable objectives such as “solve two-step fraction problems.”
• The six revised levels are Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create, and each one has its own set of Bloom’s verbs.
• Use higher-order learning objective verbs (Analyze, Evaluate, Create) to push past memorization, and match your assessment questions to the same level.
• Well-written objectives are the backbone of good courses, which is why instructional design and assessment authoring teams rely on these action words every day.

Who this article is for: teachers, instructional designers, curriculum writers, corporate trainers, and content teams who want a practical, ready-to-use list of action verbs and objective examples for every cognitive level.

What are Bloom’s taxonomy verbs?

Bloom’s taxonomy verbs are action words, tied to each level of the framework, that state precisely what a learner will be able to do after instruction. Instead of writing a fuzzy aim like “students will understand photosynthesis,” you use an action word to make the outcome observable: “students will diagram the stages of photosynthesis.”

That single change matters because you cannot measure “understand,” but you can measure “diagram,” “explain,” or “compare.” This is why the right verbs sit at the heart of course design. They connect three things that must always align: the objective, the teaching activity, and the assessment. When all three use words from the same cognitive level, your course stays coherent and your data actually tells you whether learning happened.

The framework was first published in 1956 and revised in 2001 by Anderson and Krathwohl, who reframed the categories as actions rather than nouns. That revised version is the one most teams use today, and every list below follows it. Whether you are building a single lesson or a full curriculum, choosing the right Bloom’s taxonomy verbs is the fastest way to raise the quality of your learning objectives.

Original vs revised framework

It helps to know both versions, because older textbooks still use the 1956 wording. The original model used nouns, while the 2001 revision changed them to verbs and swapped the top two levels so that creating sits at the peak.

Original (1956)	Revised (2001)
Knowledge	Remember
Comprehension	Understand
Application	Apply
Analysis	Analyze
Synthesis	Evaluate
Evaluation	Create

The six Bloom’s taxonomy levels

1. Remember: recall facts and basic concepts.
2. Understand: explain ideas or concepts in your own words.
3. Apply: use information in new situations.
4. Analyze: draw connections and break ideas into parts.
5. Evaluate: justify a decision or judge against criteria.
6. Create: produce new or original work.

The first three levels (Remember, Understand, Apply) are lower-order skills; the top three (Analyze, Evaluate, Create) are higher-order skills. Strong courses do not stop at the lower Bloom’s taxonomy levels; they deliberately move learners up the ladder. Mapping content against all six Bloom’s taxonomy levels is a core step in curriculum development and instructional design.

The complete verb list by level

This is the reference most people come for: a clean, copy-ready list of action verbs for each level. Use these words to start every learning objective.

Level	What the learner does	Action verbs
1. Remember	Recalls facts and terms	define, list, name, recall, identify, label, recognize, state, match, memorize, repeat, select
2. Understand	Explains meaning	explain, summarize, describe, interpret, classify, compare, discuss, paraphrase, illustrate, restate, infer, translate
3. Apply	Uses knowledge in new contexts	apply, use, solve, demonstrate, calculate, implement, execute, operate, complete, modify, sketch, show
4. Analyze	Breaks ideas into parts	analyze, differentiate, organize, contrast, examine, categorize, distinguish, deconstruct, investigate, correlate, test
5. Evaluate	Judges against criteria	evaluate, judge, critique, justify, defend, argue, assess, appraise, recommend, prioritize, rate, support
6. Create	Produces original work	create, design, develop, compose, construct, formulate, generate, produce, invent, plan, propose, devise

A few practical notes. Some words, like compare, can appear at more than one level depending on the task, so the depth of the activity decides the level, not the word alone. Keep a shortlist of go-to Bloom’s verbs for each level pinned near your desk, because reaching for higher-order Bloom’s verbs is what separates a memorization quiz from genuine skill building. Teams that build content at scale, such as our eLearning content development writers, work from a standardized bank of Bloom’s verbs so quality stays consistent across hundreds of modules.

How to write measurable learning objectives

A measurable objective follows a simple formula built around learning objective verbs:

Audience + Behavior (action verb) + Condition + Degree

For example: “By the end of the lesson (condition), students (audience) will classify (action verb) at least 8 of 10 rock samples (degree) as igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic.”

The verb does the heavy lifting because it defines the observable behavior you will assess. Strong learning objective verbs are specific and testable; weak ones are not. When you draft objectives, pick the learning objective verbs that match the cognitive level you actually want, then design the activity and the test to match. It is why our assessment authoring and custom eLearning development teams rewrite objectives with precise learning objective verbs before a single slide is built.

Verbs to avoid in learning objectives

Avoid vague words that cannot be observed or measured, because they make assessment impossible:

• Understand: you cannot see “understanding” directly.
• Know: invisible and untestable as written.
• Learn: describes the process, not the outcome.
• Appreciate: a feeling, not a behavior.
• Be aware of: no measurable action.
• Grasp or comprehend: the same problem as “understand.”

Replace each with a concrete Bloom’s verb. “Understand the water cycle” becomes “diagram the water cycle.” “Know the safety rules” becomes “list the five safety rules.” Swapping vague words for measurable action verbs instantly makes an objective assessable.

Bloom’s taxonomy questions by level

Bloom’s taxonomy questions are prompts designed to test thinking at a specific level of the framework. Here are question stems for each level:

• Remember: “List the three branches of government.”
• Understand: “Explain why the water evaporates.”
• Apply: “Solve this equation using the method shown.”
• Analyze: “Compare the two authors’ arguments.”
• Evaluate: “Justify which solution is best and why.”
• Create: “Design an experiment to test this hypothesis.”

Writing Bloom’s taxonomy questions at higher levels is how you assess deeper learning rather than recall. A balanced test mixes levels on purpose, and well-constructed Bloom’s taxonomy questions are a specialty of the psychometric reviewers behind our assessment development work.

A worked example: one topic, six levels

To see how the verbs stack up, here is a single topic, “the water cycle,” written as one objective per level using a matching action verb.

• Remember: List the four stages of the water cycle.
• Understand: Explain how evaporation turns liquid water into vapor.
• Apply: Use a diagram to predict where condensation will form.
• Analyze: Compare the water cycle in a rainforest and a desert.
• Evaluate: Justify which human activities most disrupt the cycle.
• Create: Design a poster that teaches the water cycle to younger students.

Notice how the thinking deepens as you climb, even though the topic never changes. This is the practical power of Bloom’s verbs: the same content can be taught and tested at very different depths, simply by changing the verb.

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Objective and test mismatch: writing an “analyze” objective, then testing with a recall question. The levels must match.
2. Living at the bottom: using only Remember and Understand verbs, so learners never practice higher-order thinking.
3. Stacking verbs: cramming two action words into one objective, which makes it impossible to assess. Use one verb per objective.
4. Treating verbs as fixed: assuming a word always maps to one level. Context matters, so judge by the depth of the task.

Using these verbs across grades and training

• K-12: teachers scaffold from lower to higher levels across a unit, supported by standards-aligned K-12 curriculum.
• Higher education: professors use higher-order learning objective verbs to drive analysis in university courseware.
• Corporate training: L&D teams write performance-based objectives through corporate learning and skill development programs.
• Test prep: item writers align every question to a level for exam-accurate test-prep content.
• Scenario design: higher-order verbs power decision-based scenario-based learning.

You can see how this plays out in real programs in our case studies, or read more about the Graveiens team.

Frequently asked questions

Q. What are Bloom’s taxonomy verbs?

A. They are action words linked to each level of the framework that describe exactly what a learner should be able to do, such as list, explain, apply, analyze, evaluate, or create. They make learning objectives specific and measurable.

Q. What are the six Bloom’s taxonomy levels?

A. The six revised levels are Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create, moving from lower-order thinking (recall) to higher-order thinking (producing original work).

Q. Why use Bloom’s verbs in learning objectives?

A. Learning objective verbs make outcomes observable and testable. You cannot measure ‘understand,’ but you can measure ‘diagram’ or ‘compare.’ Precise verbs keep objectives, activities, and assessments aligned.

Q. Is ‘understand’ a Bloom’s taxonomy verb?

A. No. ‘Understand’ is the name of a level, not a measurable action word. Replace it with a concrete Bloom’s verb like explain, summarize, or interpret so the objective can be assessed.

Q. What are examples of higher-order Bloom’s verbs?

A. They come from the top three levels: analyze, differentiate, and examine (Analyze); evaluate, critique, and justify (Evaluate); and create, design, and develop (Create).

Q. How do I write Bloom’s taxonomy questions?

A. Match the question to the objective’s level. Use recall stems (‘list,’ ‘define’) for Remember, and higher-order stems (‘compare,’ ‘justify,’ ‘design’) for deeper levels.

Q. How many verbs should one objective have?

A. Use exactly one action verb per objective. Stacking two verbs makes the outcome impossible to assess cleanly, so split it into two separate objectives instead.

Conclusion

Bloom’s taxonomy verbs are the simplest, highest-leverage tool in course design. By replacing vague aims with a precise verb from the right level, you turn “understand” into something you can teach, observe, and measure. Keep the verb list by level close, write one learning objective verb per objective, and align your Bloom’s taxonomy questions to the same level, and your courses will get measurably better.

Need rigorous, measurable courses?From instructional design to assessment authoring, Graveiens EduServices builds objectives and questions around Bloom’s taxonomy from day one, plus a free sample module to your brief.  graveiens.com

Sources: Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001), A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing; Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching; University of Arkansas TIPS.