9th Grade Spelling Words
These 9th grade spelling words are challenging for most adults, including teachers and parents! Use this word list to challenge your best spellers of any grade! Or you can also use them as challenge words at the end of a competitive spelling bee competition.
Your students will gain confidence in their writing when they learn to use and spell words like ubiquitous, idiosyncrasy, rococo and more.
9th Grade Spelling Words
Download our Printable 9th Grade Spelling Words.
| absorption | accompaniment | accomplice |
| acquiesce | acquittal | affiliation |
| altercation | ambassador | ambiguous |
| animosity | apparatus | approximately |
| austerity | authentic | authenticate |
| auxiliary | benevolent | blasphemous |
| bravado | camouflage | capricious |
| carburetor | cavalcade | celestial |
| cerebral | chagrin | chaotic |
| chasm | chastise | chronic |
| citadel | clique | cocoon |
| conceivable | concurrent | conscientious |
| consciousness | contiguous | correspondence |
| corroborate | curriculum | defamation |
| deprivation | derelict | diffidence |
| disastrous | dissociate | distinction |
| diurnal | dominant | dormitory |
| drudgery | elicit | elimination |
| embroidery | equinox | escapade |
| espionage | etiquette | exaggeration |
| exemplary | expediency | expedient |
| expunge | facsimile | fallacy |
| feasibility | fictitious | finesse |
| fluorescent | fulfill | grammatically |
| gruesome | handkerchief | hideous |
| hindrance | homogenize | hypocrisy |
| idiosyncrasy | impasse | impropriety |
| incandescent | incessant | inconsolable |
| indelible | indispensable | indisputable |
| insufficient | interrogative | irreconcilable |
| irrelevant | irrevocable | judicious |
| justifiable | labyrinth | liaison |
| lustrous | magnanimous | magnificence |
| maintenance | malicious | martyr |
| melee | metamorphosis | molecular |
| monotony | morose | multiplicity |
| nausea | nonchalance | notoriety |
| oblique | occasionally | olfactory |
| omnipotent | onomatopoeia | palatable |
| pandemonium | panorama | partiality |
| pastime | patriarch | pediatrician |
| peril | perjury | philanthropist |
| picturesque | pittance | playwright |
| poignancy | poignant | potpourri |
| prejudice | premonition | primitive |
| proximity | quibble | quixotic |
| quizzical | recipient | redundant |
| reek | relevancy | remembrance |
| renegade | renovate | reservoir |
| respite | retaliate | retrieve |
| rococo | sabotage | salient |
| satisfactorily | saunter | scavenger |
| scourge | scuttle | seethe |
| significance | soliloquy | spasmodic |
| squalid | strenuous | stringent |
| subsequent | subsistence | succinct |
| summarize | supersede | surgeon |
| surveillance | swelter | synthesis |
| tantalize | technician | technique |
| tedious | tenuous | tirade |
| transcend | transient | transmutation |
| tremor | turbulence | ubiquitous |
| ulterior | unanimous | uncanny |
| uncouth | undoubtedly | unforgettable |
| upbraid | variegated | vengeance |
| versatile | volatile | vulnerable |
| vying | wary |
Please note that this is a general list to supplement other curriculum. The needs of your students may vary.
Studying for a 9th Grade Spelling Bee
Are you a 9th grader who is gearing up for an important spelling bee? Preparing for a 9th grade spelling bee doesn't have to be a daunting task. With a few simple strategies, you make sure you're ready to take on the competition!
What to Expect
- Be prepared to spell words that cover a wide range of difficulty
- Be sure you understand the rules of the spelling bee
- Be positive and stay focused, even if you feel a bit nervous
Tips for Studying for the 9th Grade Spelling Bee
1. Break Down the Words
- Break down words into root words, suffixes, and prefixes
- Analyze unfamiliar words to figure out their meaning
- Practice using words in sentences
2. Use Online Resources
- Utilize online dictionaries to look up definitions. (It's also a good idea to study the giant hard copy versions of the dictionary, too!)
- Practice spelling words with online quizzes
- Make use of online study guides
3. Make Flashcards
- Make flashcards of the most difficult words
- Have a friend or family member test you on your flashcards
- Practice saying and writing the words from your flashcards
4. Practice, Practice, Practice
- Set aside time each day to practice spelling.
- Remember that "practice makes perfect."
- Listen to audio recordings of words to practice pronunciations
- Ask an adult for help on practicing difficult words
5. What to Do During the Competition
- Eat a good breakfast. Be sure to get some protein such as eggs, nuts, or a protein bar
- Try to stay calm and focused on spelling correctly. Put into practice all the things you've been learning
- Take deep breaths and tell yourself that you CAN do it!
More 9th Grade Spelling Resources
You may also be interested in these:
9th grade worksheets for spelling practice: Tricky word search puzzle and word scramble games. There is NO word list for the word search puzzle, but there are three important hints! After students solve the word scrambles, engage them in helping you to make additional puzzles for you to duplicate and share with the class. Best thing ever: Spelling worksheets disguised as word play!
Antonym Antics - Challenging vocabulary worksheet for upper grades and adults! Students will select the keyword that is spelled correctly. Then they must find a word in the same row that is an antonym for the one of the meanings of the correctly-spelled keyword. It sounds so simple...right?!?
9th grade vocabulary and spelling : A simple idea you can use with the whole class all year long. Students can help you write some great exercises!
Teaching Tips and Tricks
Use our list of 9th 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.
Your 9th graders may also want to brush up on this list of 8th grade spelling words. There are plenty of tough ones on this list, too!
For even more practice, try these three tough word lists!
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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