High School Spelling Bee Words
A comprehensive list of age-appropriate spelling bee words for high school students.
- abhor
- abstruse
- acumen
- affable
- anachronism
- antediluvian
- bolster
- bombastic
- bourgeois
- brevity
- cacophony
- camaraderie
- candid
- capricious
- chrysanthemum
- coerce
- dearth
- debris
- deleterious
- demagogue
- denouement
- ebullient
- effervescent
- eloquence
- empathy
- ephemeral
- esoteric
- facade
- fastidious
- fortuitous
- frugal
- garrulous
- gauntlet
- genial
- grandiloquent
- harangue
- haughty
- hegemony
- hiatus
- iconoclast
- ignominious
- impetuous
- impetus
- innate
- insouciance
- jettison
- jovial
- juxtapose
- kaleidoscope
- kinetic
- laconic
- legerdemain
- levity
- lucid
- lucrative
- machination
- magnanimous
- maverick
- mellifluous
- mosaic
- nefarious
- nonchalant
- nuance
- obfuscate
- obsequious
- obstinate
- obstreperous
- onomatopoeia
- opaque
- panacea
- paradigm
- pernicious
- perspicacious
- poignant
- prestidigitation
- quandary
- quell
- querulous
- quintessential
- quixotic
- recalcitrant
- rendezvous
- rescind
- reticent
- rhetoric
- soliloquy
- squalor
- stoic
- surreptitious
- sycophant
- taciturn
- tenuous
- tirade
- truculent
- ubiquitous
- vehement
- verisimilitude
- vicissitude
- winsome
- zealous
The High School Spelling Bee Kit
The word list above stays free forever. The kit is what comes next — 100 words worked all the way through, 82 printable pages, ready in one download.
- Every word with a definition, example sentence & pronunciation
- Cut-and-go flashcard deck, printed for double-sided flipping
- Trace-and-write, fill-in-the-blank & scramble worksheets + answer key
- Parent/teacher guide with a pronouncer script, tracker & certificate
Study Resources
Additional resources to help students master these spelling words.
Get the full word list as a free one-page printable PDF.
Get the PDFDownload and print flashcards for all words in this grade level.
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View DefinitionsAbout High School Spelling Bee Words
Our high school spelling bee word list is pitched to match the vocabulary and spelling skills appropriate for students at this level. These words are selected based on educational standards, frequency of use, and developmental appropriateness.
The words are organized into three difficulty levels to help students progressively build their skills:
- Easy: Words that appear in serious writing and on college entrance tests: abhor, brevity, candid, facade.
- Medium: Vocabulary that rewards knowing a root: acumen, cacophony, demagogue, fastidious, garrulous.
- Challenging: Words carrying their original foreign spelling: anachronism, bourgeois, ephemeral, insouciance.
Why Practice Spelling Words?
Cognitive Development
At this level spelling and vocabulary are the same skill — you spell ephemeral correctly because you know what it means and where it came from.
Reading Improvement
This is the register of literary criticism, editorials and set texts, where a missed word changes the reading of a sentence.
Writing Skills
Precision is the point of academic writing, and using bourgeois or candid accurately says more than a longer sentence would.
Spelling Tips for High School Students
Effective strategies to help high school students master spelling words.
Cacophony, symphony, euphony all carry the Greek phone, sound. One root delivers a dozen words.
Bourgeois, facade and insouciance keep French spelling and French stress. Learn them as French words that English borrowed, not as English words behaving oddly.
Essays, criticism and long-form journalism use this vocabulary naturally. Meeting a word in context beats meeting it on a list.
High School spelling questions, answered
Is high school too late to start competitive spelling?
For Scripps, yes — eligibility ends after eighth grade. For vocabulary, entrance exams and writing, this is exactly when the work pays.
How should high schoolers study these words?
By root and by origin rather than alphabetically. At this level almost every word decomposes, and decomposition is faster than memorization.
Are these words useful for the SAT or ACT?
Many overlap with the vocabulary those tests assume, though neither is a vocabulary test any more. The larger gain is in reading speed and in writing with precision.
How were these words chosen?
They are pitched at the vocabulary a student at this level is typically ready for, and sorted into easy, medium and challenging so you can start at the right place. They are not an official competition list — for that, see the Scripps study materials.
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