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10th Grade Spelling Words

Here are 100 tough 10th grade spelling words to challenge your students. (Parents and teachers might find them a bit difficult, too!)

Your students will gain confidence in their speaking and writing when they learn to use and spell these challenging words!

Scan the list to see if YOU know words like anathema, belvedere, intransigence, obdurate, and tripartite!

Difficult Spelling Words from our list of 10th grade spelling words

List of 100 10th Grade Words

Here's a peek at page one of my printable list of 100 words for 10th Grade . The entire list also appears below, for your convenience. The printable list includes all 100 of our 10th grade spelling words on two pages. Please note that this is a general list to supplement other curriculum. The needs of your students may vary.

10th Grade Spelling Words from www.spelling-words-well.com

Here's the entire list again. Read it carefully, and think about the meaning of each word. If you don't know a word's meaning, please look it up in a dictionary. Then try the quiz below!

abalone

aberrant

absenteeism

accelerator

agog

amorphous

ampere

anachronistic

anathema

apocryphal

arboreal

arcana

assiduous

atrophy

attenuate

auspices

autonomous

ballyhoo

beguiling

belvedere

bicuspid

biennial

bravura

cacophony

carcinogen

cervine

colloquial

comestible

commensurate

concierge

contemporaneous

convivial

corollary

cumbrous

delineate

despotism

disenfranchise

echelon

eclectic

emigrant

encyclical

fallacious

filibuster

fungible

gazpacho

gazetteer

gimmicky

ignominy

imperturbable

incontrovertible

incredulously

indomitable

intransigence

kefir

knickknack

kuchen

largesse

lederhosen

lintel

modicum

myrrh

narcissus

neckerchief

neophyte

neurosis

nunnery

obdurate

obstetrician

opacity

opaqueness

operetta

oxymoron

parallelogram

pegmatite

pejorative

penumbra

perfunctory

pertinacious

piscatorial

poultice

rampageous

recalcitrant

restaurateur

reticular

sacrilegious

sauerbraten

sobriquet

surreptitiously

sycophantic

thievery

tremolo

trichinosis

tripartite

troika

turducken

unconscionable

unpronounceable

virulent

vociferous

zoophyte

Quick Quiz: Find a word in the list above for each of these definitions:

1) interchangeable

2) hard-working

3) edible

4) shadowing of the sun

5) rebellious; resisting authority

6) a fermented sour-tasting milk drink

7) disgrace or shame

8) a moderate or small amount

9) of or relating to fish

10) Can you find the names of three food items on the list?

Find my answers below.

In addition to learning to spell the words above, students should also learn their meanings, pronunciations and correct usages. Spelling is just the start of complete language learning!

More Lists of Difficult Words

Would you like to learn MORE challenging words? How long will it take you to master one of these lists? Or ALL of them?

NEW! 172 Hard Words to Spell Study what makes these words (and so many others) so difficult to spell! Improve your spelling skills as you master the challenge words on this list.

Learn more about unfamiliar words, words with tricky vowel combinations, silent consonants, double consonants and more. Follow the links to additional word lists and study tools! Words on the list include abecedarian, absquatulate, boutonniere, cappuccino, connoisseur, diaphanous, impuissance, logorrhea, pastiche, psephology, querulous, rinceau, terpsichorean, and many, many more.

More 10th Grade Spelling Resources

Try some of these prompts, brain teasers and word puzzles to challenge your high school students. Spelling has never been so much fun, or so tricky! Find lots more brain teasers, crosswords, and word scrambles by using the blue tabs at the left.

Student asleep at desk, with teacher holding an alarm clock over his head

High School Writing Prompts - Do you need a lot of sleep to be a good student? What happens when the absenteeism rate skyrockets? What do you say to your principal at graduation? Your students will respond to prompts like these while practicing some difficult spelling words!

Arm pulling on an electrical fuse, from our "Pull Apart" word puzzle

Pull-Apart Synonyms - Extremely challenging free word scramble game! Can you pull apart these letters, without rearranging them, to spell a pair of synonyms? Is this as easy as it sounds???

Man wearing glasses, laden with lots of luggage, from our Travel Teaser spelling and logic puzzler

Travel Teaser - If you enjoy solving logic brain teasers, you must try this one! You'll need to know the correct spellings of several tricky words, plus you'll need to read carefully, and -- of course -- use skills in logic and critical thinking.

Brain Teasers for Adults & Upper Grade Students - Two REALLY difficult letters with hidden messages. Good spelling skills are the key to uncovering them!

Blindfolded man, trying to feel his way around, from our tricky spelling crossword, "Which One Is It?"

Which One Is It? Don’t try to solve this tricky puzzle while you’re blindfolded. Instead, use what you know about correct spelling! Choose the one word that is spelled correctly and write it in the puzzle.

Hard word search puzzle - 9th grade worksheets

Teaching Tips and Tricks

Use our list of 10th grade spelling words for classroom quizzes and competitions, games and worksheets. We have free spelling lessons that can help you learn or teach some of these tricky words.

FAQs

Q: Why have you chosen such difficult words for this 10th grade spelling list?

A: First of all, tenth graders no longer like to study normal weekly spelling lists. They're way too "old" for that! So, in order to show them they still need to hone their spelling skills, let's really challenge them with TOUGH words! Secondly, many tenth graders WILL rise to the challenge when given the opportunity! If we never expect great things, we may never see them!

Q: What about tenth graders who are not able to learn all these words at this high level of difficulty?

A: You should, of course, adapt spelling lists and expectations to YOUR students and to individual needs whenever possible. For students who are not able to perform at such a high level, there are at least two ways to differentiate:

Assign only a couple of words at a time. OR,
Assign much easier words. See my graded spelling word lists, and choose words from whichever lists seem best for each student. Remove all grade-level labels before assigning them to your 10th grader.

Ann Richmond Fisher is a longtime published educational writer, a former classroom teacher and a former homeschool teacher. Ann's spelling bee resources, graded spelling word lists, spelling games, worksheets, and other language arts resources have become respected around the globe since she launched Spelling-Words-Well in 2010.

Ann is also the creator of www.word-game-world.com.

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