Study lists
Spelling Bee Words to Study
168,324 English words of 5 letters or more are available to study in ENABLE, the public-domain word list Wordton searches, graded here into four bands by length and ordered within each band by how uncommon their letters are.
Written by Blake Boege Last checked
This page is for a spelling competition
These are words to learn to spell, for a classroom bee, a school bee, or a regional one. If you are here for the New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle, the one with seven letters in a honeycomb, you want the solver or Spelling Bee words instead. Same name, completely different thing, and nothing on this page will help you finish today's puzzle.
How these lists were built
Every word comes from the list this site searches: ENABLE, a public-domain list of about 172,800 English words, plus a curated supplement of 487 modern ones. The bands are length, which is simply counted. Within each band the words are ordered by how uncommon their letters are: each letter carries the standard tile value, where the commonest letters score 1 and the rarest score 10, and the word's score is the average across its letters. A word full of J, K, Q, X and Z rises; a word of the same length made of E, A, R and T does not.
What this is not: we do not assign grade levels. You will see lists elsewhere labelled fifth grade or eighth grade, and we have no source that would let us make that claim honestly, so we do not make it. Length and letter rarity are things we can measure and show you. Whether a particular word suits a particular child is a judgement their teacher can make and we cannot.
One more honest limit: spelling bees are usually judged from a specific published list, and this is not that list. Ask the organiser which one they use. These bands are for practice, and practice at the right length and the right awkwardness is most of what practice is.
The awkward end of each band
36 words per band, the ones whose letters are least common. These are the ones worth drilling: a word is rarely missed because it is long, it is missed because a letter is not where the ear expects it.
Five and six letters
Short enough to hear in one go. Most of the difficulty is in vowels that are not spelled the way they sound.
Seven and eight letters
Long enough that a speller has to break the word into parts before starting.
Nine and ten letters
Where prefixes and suffixes start doing the work, and where mishearing one syllable costs the round.
Eleven letters and longer
The words that decide a competition. Almost all of them are built from recognisable pieces.
Build your own list
The filters below search every English word of 5 letters or more, not only the bands above. Put in the letters a speller keeps getting wrong and drill those: it is the fastest way to turn a weak spot into a strength.
Type letters you know or letters you have ruled out. The list updates as you type.
28-Letter Words (1)
27-Letter Words (2)
25-Letter Words (2)
24-Letter Words (9)
23-Letter Words (13)
22-Letter Words (30)
21-Letter Words (62)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 62 at this length.
20-Letter Words (160)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 160 at this length.
19-Letter Words (329)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 329 at this length.
18-Letter Words (594)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 594 at this length.
17-Letter Words (1,128)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 1,128 at this length.
16-Letter Words (1,945)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 1,945 at this length.
15-Letter Words (3,194)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 3,194 at this length.
14-Letter Words (5,138)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 5,138 at this length.
13-Letter Words (7,843)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 7,843 at this length.
12-Letter Words (11,399)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 11,399 at this length.
11-Letter Words (15,560)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 15,560 at this length.
10-Letter Words (20,381)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 20,381 at this length.
9-Letter Words (24,954)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 24,954 at this length.
8-Letter Words (28,497)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 28,497 at this length.
7-Letter Words (23,165)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 23,165 at this length.
6-Letter Words (15,264)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 15,264 at this length.
5-Letter Words (8,654)
Showing the first 60 alphabetically of 8,654 at this length.