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Tricky plurals: spelling bee words

More than one, spelled the hard way: boxes, babies, knives, potatoes, mice, geese, children.

Bee Practice says each word, then a sentence where there is one, and you pick the right spelling from three boxes. No typing. Two first-try rights and a word is spelled for good on this device. Running a bee? Pronouncer mode shows each word for a grown-up to read, and prints cards.

Tricky plurals

Add es after s, x, z, ch or sh; change a y after a consonant to ies; many f words take ves; and some plurals are words of their own.

feet
children
mice
teeth
leaves
deer
sheep
keys
boxes
foxes
dishes
wishes
buses
glasses
benches
lunches
peaches
brushes
inches
classes
babies
cities
puppies
ponies
stories
berries
families
parties
flies
bodies
pennies
ladies
knives
wolves
halves
shelves
geese
women
moose
cherries
monkeys
donkeys
people
loaves
calves
scarves
potatoes
tomatoes
heroes
oxen
chimneys
valleys
echoes
thieves
journeys
mosquitoes
cacti
fungi
octopuses
series
species

More spelling bee lists

Also on Peabody: the Words place, words that start with each letter, spelling games and the Daily Word. Teachers: the weekly lists these come from are on Peabody Teach.

How this list was made: The plural weeks of the K–8 teachers' 3rd grade lists, and a set of f-to-ves, o-to-oes and irregular plurals written for this list.

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