Home Store Contact Site Map

Difficult Spelling Words

When learning difficult spelling words seems like a long, uphill climb, remember that we're here to help!

One set of particularly difficult words are those that are spelled with the ei or ie vowel combination. We've compiled a printable list of 285 for you study. Some words on the list are useful for elementary students, others are appropriate for high school students, ESL students and adults.

Our step-by-step spelling lesson plans will help you master these tricky spelling words. See more ideas, and links to more word lists, at the bottom of the page.

Get your free printable list of these difficult spelling words.

list of difficult spelling words - ie/ei

Additional Lists of Difficult Spelling Words:

NEW! 200 Difficult Words to Spell What's more difficult than a horse walking on a tightrope? Maybe it's spelling all 200 of these difficult English words correctly the first time! Use this list as study bee prep or for classroom reference. It's ideal for students, teachers and parents.

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.

300 Commonly Misspelled Words - Skim this long list of words to find the ones you misspell the most often. Then follow the tips on this page to master their correct spellings. Why make the same mistakes over and over again when you CAN improve your spelling skills?! A free printable page is included, along with many additional helpful resources.

Spelling Demons - Sometimes the words that trip us up are those that are easily-confused with other words, like desert/dessert, lose/loose, and allusion/illusion. Master this list to improve your spelling skills.

For some really tough spelling words, we have a list of 100 Difficult Spelling Words for Spelling Bee Officials. This resource is now available in two volumes. We've included the pronunciation, definition, part of speech, etymology and a sentence for each word. If you're having a serious competition, these lists are for you!

Spelling Bee Words List with pronunciations and meanings from www.spelling-words-well.com

Spelling Bee Words List - 25 Challenging Spelling Bee Words with Pronunciations and Meanings! Teachers, use these for classroom warm-ups or competitions. Students, learn these before your next competition!

chrysanthemum

You may also enjoy this list of 50 Hard Spelling Bee Words and Definitions. This is required learning for anyone who wants to excel in an upper grade spelling competition. Please take time to learn the word meanings, along with the spellings!

Spelling Lessons

teacher and upper grade students seated at table

Step-By-Step Spelling Lesson Plans - Here's a very methodical way to teach, or learn, those tricky IE/EI words. Great for ESL students, upper elementary students, or adults. You can use every step of this lesson, or just the ones that you need. This free printable lesson includes a link to big list of IE/EI words for extra study and practice.

Step-by-Step Lesson - This lesson methodically teaches when to double, and when not to double, the final consonant when adding suffixes.

Tips for Learning Difficult Words

Glance over the list to find words that you use frequently. Make sure you know how to spell those words first.
Keep a list of your most troublesome words on the fridge or write them on the outside of a folder. Review them frequently.
Ask a friend to quiz you occasionally.
Use the words in your written documents. Practice a lot!
Use our Step-By Step Lesson plan for mastering these ie/ei words. The lesson is adaptable for grades 5 and up, including ESL students and adults.

Teachers: Adapt the lesson for seat work, board work or homework.

All students, (including ESL) and adults: Print out the list to use it and review it frequently. Just looking at the words will help you remember how the words should appear. Then when you write them incorrectly, they just might look funny to you.

Other Resources:

As student learn difficult words, make sure they know how to use them correctly. We have lots of fun spelling practice ideas, as well as crossword puzzles, spelling word games and spelling worksheets.

Be sure to try new ideas and share the ones that work best with other students, parents and teachers.

Crossword Puzzles and Answers - Hard Vocab 250

Hard Vocabulary & Spelling Bee Words Crossword - That's a mouthful, but can you solve it? Work back and forth between the 20 clues and the crossword diagram to successfully complete this VERY challenging crossword. One of our most difficult puzzlers, but you can do it! I supply hints, and you'll find more answers you begin to fill in the crossword.

Spelling Bee Challenge - In this unique fill-in crossword, you'll need to place 32 difficult spelling bee words. How many of these words can you spell and/or define?

Synonym Crossword: Can you solve this mammoth-sized challenge? For each clue you must select a synonym that fits into the diagram.

Did you know one of the best motivations for students to boost their spelling skills? It's called a SPELLING BEE! We have a huge set of resources to make your next classroom competition a success!

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.

Spelling Videos

Subscribe or Read the Latest Updates Here

9th Grade Spelling Words
This list of 9th grade spelling words is full of difficult spelling words to challenge adults and students! Free PDF and additional resources for ninth grade spelling.
Read More
6th Grade Spelling Bee Words
Whether you're a teacher, parent or student, our list of 6th grade spelling bee words is a great resource. Use it for practice or for your next competition.
Read More