Spelling Bee Words by Grade Level
Free spelling bee word lists for grades 1–8 and high school — with practice quizzes, flashcards, games, and printable lists. Everything students, teachers, and parents need to win the bee.
Select Your Grade Level
Every grade has its own word list, split into easy, medium, and challenging words.
Spelling Bee Words to Start With, by Grade
Five words from each list, easiest first. Open a grade for its full list with definitions, a practice quiz and a printable page.
| Grade | Ages | Words | Example words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 | 6–7 | 50 | at, bed, black, because, brother |
| Grade 2 | 7–8 | 50 | about, apple, animal, another, birthday |
| Grade 3 | 8–9 | 50 | afraid, batter, address, although, breathe |
| Grade 4 | 9–10 | 50 | ancient, breeze, accident, amateur, beautiful |
| Grade 5 | 10–11 | 50 | abandon, benefit, ambition, analyze, bouquet |
| Grade 6 | 11–12 | 50 | abrupt, blizzard, adequate, apparent, bureau |
| Grade 7 | 12–13 | 50 | accurate, barrier, adolescent, acquiesce, bureaucracy |
| Grade 8 | 13–14 | 100 | abolish, adhere, adamant, accommodate, aesthetic |
| High School | 14–18 | 100 | abhor, affable, abstruse, anachronism, antediluvian |
Want every word at once? See all 550 on one page.
Good, Tricky and Hard Spelling Bee Words
What are good spelling bee words?
A good spelling bee word is one the speller can read and say but cannot yet spell from sound alone. That moves with the grade: because and people do the job in first grade, rhythm and occasion in fifth, liaison and questionnaire in seventh. The table above gives five for every level.
What are 20 tricky words to spell?
Twenty from the challenging tier of our grade 3 to 8 lists. Each one has a silent letter, a doubled letter or a vowel spelling you cannot hear.
- neighbor
- calendar
- knowledge
- ceiling
- embarrass
- guarantee
- mischief
- rhythm
- occasion
- bouquet
- gauge
- pneumonia
- fluorescent
- souvenir
- liaison
- indict
- questionnaire
- accommodate
- millennium
- vacuum
What are the 10 hardest words to spell?
Nobody keeps an official ranking. These are the ten we would put at the top of our own lists, all from the high school challenging tier.
- prestidigitation
- onomatopoeia
- verisimilitude
- legerdemain
- chrysanthemum
- antediluvian
- denouement
- insouciance
- surreptitious
- bourgeois
What are the 2026 spelling bee words?
The official study list for the Scripps National Spelling Bee is Words of the Champions, about 4,000 words, published at spellingbee.com. The lists on this site are our own and are not the official ones, so use them alongside the Scripps material. Our Scripps bee guide explains how the two fit together, and how we build our lists says what ours are based on.
- Curated words
- 550
- Grade levels
- 9
- Difficulty tiers per grade
- 3
- Free study tools
- 4
Four Ways to Master Every List
Reading a list only gets you so far. These free tools turn studying into doing.
Built for Your Whole Team
Spelling bee prep works best when students, teachers, and parents pull together.
For Students
Improve your spelling skills
Practice with grade-appropriate words, play games, and get ready to win your spelling bee.
Student ResourcesFor Teachers
Classroom-ready resources
Printable word lists, flashcards, and spelling bee organization guides for your classroom.
Teacher ResourcesFor Parents
Support learning at home
Help your child practice with word lists, study tips, and fun at-home spelling activities.
Parent ResourcesWhy Use SpellingBeeWord.com?
550 words across 9 levels, sorted easy to challenging.
Grade-Appropriate
Words matched to each grade's vocabulary standards and typical competition difficulty.
Printable & Downloadable
Print any list or download it as a file for offline practice, classroom handouts, and study packets.
Get the free PDFs →Read Aloud, Like a Real Bee
Practice quizzes speak each word the way a pronouncer would, so students train the way they compete — listening, not reading.
Try a quiz →Want the whole grade ready to print?
Everything here stays free. The practice kit adds a definition, example sentence and pronunciation hint for every word, plus flashcards, worksheets, a host guide and a certificate — one print-ready PDF from $4.99.
Spelling Bee Questions, Answered
What is a spelling bee word list?
A spelling bee word list is a curated set of words students study to prepare for a spelling competition. Our lists are organized by grade level (1-8 and high school) and split into easy, medium, and challenging tiers so students can build skills progressively.
Are these spelling bee word lists free?
Yes. Every word list, practice quiz, flashcard set, and game on SpellingBeeWord.com is completely free, with no account needed. Every grade's list is also available as a free printable PDF, which asks for an email address before it downloads.
Which grade level should my child start with?
Start with your child's current school grade. If the words feel too easy, move up a level; if they're frustrating, step down one. The easy/medium/challenging tabs within each grade help you fine-tune difficulty without changing grades.
How should students practice spelling bee words?
A proven routine: read the list aloud, take a practice quiz where the word is read to you, review misses with flashcards, and study word definitions to understand meaning and origin. Ten to fifteen minutes a day beats one long weekly session.
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