🏅 10 tips to do well at a spelling bee

1. 1

   Practise a little every dayOurs

   Fifteen minutes a day beats two hours the night before. Bee Practice keeps track of which words are tricky on this device.

2. 2

   Practise out loud

   At a bee you spell aloud, not on paper. Say every practice word letter by letter, the way you will on stage.

3. 3

   Ask for the definition

   Most bees let you ask what a word means. It tells homophones apart (their or there?) and gives you a moment to think.

4. 4

   Ask for it in a sentence

   A sentence shows which word you have been given, and hearing it again helps you picture it.

5. 5

   Ask for the language of origin

   Words from French, Greek or Latin follow their own patterns: ph for f in Greek words, -et that says "ay" in French ones.

6. 6

   Learn the roots

   Know that "bio" means life and "graph" means write, and you can spell words you have never seen: biography, autograph.

7. 7

   Spell it in the air or on your palm

   Many spellers trace the letters with a finger before they start. It slows you down and lets you see the word.

8. 8

   Say the word before and after

   Many bees ask spellers to say the word, spell it, and say it again. It is a good habit even when it is not required.

9. 9

   You can't take a letter back

   In most bees, once a letter is said it stays said. Go slowly; there is no prize for speed.

10. 10

    Practise with a pronouncerOurs

    Have someone read words to you like the real thing. Peabody's pronouncer cards give a grown-up the word, a sentence and the definition.

Peabody's own list. What a speller may ask at the microphone is set by each bee's rules; these are the requests most school bees allow. Checked 6 November 2026.

More spelling bee lists

• 📏10 spelling rules every kid should knowTen English spelling rules for kids, each with examples and the exceptions that trip people up: silent e, doubling, y to i, -es plurals, soft c, i before e and more.
• 🤔The 15 most commonly misspelled words for kidsFifteen words kids misspell most often, from because and friend to necessary and separate, each with a memory trick that makes it stick.

These are Peabody's own words, built from our grade word banks. They are not the Scripps School Spelling Bee Study List, which belongs to Scripps and is given to enrolled schools. Have the school's sheet? Ask the teacher; schools get it from Scripps at spellingbee.com. Checked 31 October 2026 · Free, no account, nothing you do here leaves this device · v0.2.0