Most words can be learned at any time by discovering a word wall, which are generally located at dragon lairs or in dungeons. A few others require access to locations that become accessible only during specific faction quests (see the table below). Some words of power can be learned only at certain points as you progress through the main questline. However, certain shouts will have no effect at all unless all three words have been unlocked and are spoken at once. Unlocking the shout's second and third words will allow for the use of a more powerful shout that will last longer, deal more damage, or have additional effects.

When you unlock the first word of a dragon shout, you will have access to its most basic version.

You will need 44 additional dragon souls to unlock all the remaining words available. These words are immediately unlocked when you receive them. Over the course of the main questline, you will learn 15 words of power from several characters.If you have no dragon souls available, you must kill a dragon and absorb its soul. To unlock a word, you must use a dragon soul that you have absorbed.Unlock the word by selecting or hovering over it, and pressing R (PC), (Xbox), or (PS3).Discover and approach a word wall to learn a word of power.To acquire a dragon shout, or to strengthen an existing shout: The Dawnguard add-on adds three new dragon shouts for players, while Dragonborn adds a total of four new dragon shouts. You can learn a total of 20 dragon shouts in the standard version of Skyrim, but that number can be increased to 27 dragon shouts by installing official add-ons. You can use dragon shouts only after completing Dragon Rising in the Main Quest, from which point you can absorb a dragon's soul after slaying it. As the Dovahkiin (Dragonborn), a mortal with the soul of a dragon, you were born with this power. Dragons are naturally able to use dragon shouts, but very few people possess this capability.

The Voice or Thu'um) are phrases of dragon language, consisting of three separate words of power, that can be used to unleash varied powerful effects.

Coolest skyrim armor mods