Major System list 00–99: a word and a picture for every number

What are the best words for a Major System list?

The best peg is a thing you can picture at once, built from only the two sounds you need. There is no official list, so every list you find is someone’s choice. These are the rules we chose ours by.

• Sounds, not spelling. LighT is 51: the gh is silent, so only the L and the T count.
• Things you can see. A MooN or a DoG is easier to picture than an idea like “mean” or “need”.
• No C. A C can sound like K (cat), S (ice) or CH (cello), so it makes you stop and think. Our 71 is a KiTe, not a cat.
• A hundred different pictures. Pegs that look alike blur together, so each one should be clearly its own thing.

A few of ours bend the rules to get a strong picture: kNiFe for 28 (the K is silent), FiFa for 88 (the football game) and FBI for 89. If a word doesn’t work for you, change it.

How do you learn the Major System list?

To memorise the list, learn the ten sounds first. Then learn the pegs ten at a time, and test yourself both ways: from the number to the picture, and from the picture back to the number.

1. Get the ten sounds solid. You should be able to say the sound for any digit without thinking. Our table of the ten sounds has a picture hook and a clip for each.
2. Take one row of ten. Say each word out loud, play its clip, and picture the thing clearly: its colour, its size, what it’s doing.
3. Cover the words and go through the numbers. Then cover the numbers and go from the pictures.
4. Move on when a row feels easy, and keep going back over the rows you’ve done.
5. Use the pegs on real numbers early: a door code, a bus number, today’s date. You don’t need to memorize all 100 before they’re useful.

Can I swap a word for one of my own?

Yes. A word that means something to you is often easier to recall than ours, so change any peg you like. Wikipedia’s article on the system makes the same point: other words work as long as you use them consistently (source). Check each new word against these rules.

• It has the number’s two sounds, in order, and no other consonant sound. MooN is 32, but “moons” would be 320.
• It’s a thing you can see, ideally one that does something.
• It doesn’t look like another peg on your list.
• You’ll say it the same way every time.

Our 33 is MeMo, the ghost who teaches the code in Memodate, our app. If he means nothing to you, a mummy or a meme work just as well: each is M and M, and a double letter is one sound.

Is the list 00 to 99, or 1 to 100?

This list runs from 00 to 99, so any long number splits into pairs and every pair has a word. If you’re after a 1 to 100 list, it’s the same set: 01 to 99 are all here, and 00, SeeSaw, can stand for the 00 in 100.

Some people also give the single digits 0 to 9 their own words. You can add those later. The 100 pairs do most of the work.

Can I print the Major System list?

Yes. The Print the list button near the top (or your browser’s own print) gives you a two-page sheet with every number, its word and a small picture, on A4 or US Letter.

It’s a printable page, not a PDF download. If you want a file, choose Save as PDF in the print dialogue.

Where to go next

32GuideThe Major System: the ten sounds, the rules, worked examples and its history

Or browse all our articles on the Major System and memory.