• 49 words

Spelling Bee for 6th Graders: Subject Words, Round by Round

Five bee rounds from sixth grade subjects, cells to stanzas, read aloud word, sentence, word.

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The 9 words of this list. Add or change any. For your own list, press Clear first.

For a sentence, put it after a colon: rain: The rain fell all day. Up to 40 words.

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Warm-up: cells and living things (tissue)

Words to learn. Read each word, cover it, write it, then check it.

  1. 1.chloroplastA chloroplast is where a leaf makes food.
  2. 2.tissueMuscle is a tissue made of many cells.
  3. 3.protistAn amoeba is a protist with one cell.
  4. 4.geneticsWe learned how genetics passes traits to children.
  5. 5.vacuoleA plant cell stores water in a vacuole.
  6. 6.respirationCells release energy through respiration.
  7. 7.bacteriumA single bacterium is too small to see.
  8. 8.pollinateBees pollinate flowers as they feed.
  9. 9.germinateSeeds need water to germinate.

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Each word is read aloud, then used in a sentence. Type what you hear. The marks come at the end.

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Accents do not count: café may be typed as cafe, and the marks show how it is written.

Only voices built into this device are used, so the words are not sent to a speech service to be read. With no voice, a person reads the words from the last page of the test sheet.

Review test from several lists
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The words are mixed from the lists you tick, so a review test needs a read-aloud voice.

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All 49 words

Warm-up: cells and living things (tissue) 9

  • bacterium A single bacterium is too small to see.
  • chloroplast A chloroplast is where a leaf makes food.
  • genetics We learned how genetics passes traits to children.
  • germinate Seeds need water to germinate.
  • pollinate Bees pollinate flowers as they feed.
  • protist An amoeba is a protist with one cell.
  • respiration Cells release energy through respiration.
  • tissue Muscle is a tissue made of many cells.
  • vacuole A plant cell stores water in a vacuole.

Round 2: the ancient world (aqueduct) 10

  • aqueduct An aqueduct carried water into the city.
  • catapult The catapult hurled stones at the wall.
  • chariot Two horses pulled the racing chariot.
  • empire The empire lasted for hundreds of years.
  • gladiator A gladiator fought in the arena.
  • hieroglyph Each hieroglyph stood for a word or a sound.
  • irrigation Farmers dug canals for irrigation.
  • oasis Travelers rested at a desert oasis.
  • papyrus Egyptians wrote on sheets of papyrus.
  • senate The senate met to debate the new law.
Show all 49 words (30 more)

Round 3: ratios and data (ratio) 10

  • absolute The absolute value of negative five is five.
  • algebra We solve equations in algebra.
  • equivalent One half is equivalent to two fourths.
  • frequency The table shows the frequency of each answer.
  • inequality An inequality uses a symbol such as greater than.
  • outlier One very tall plant was an outlier.
  • quadrant The point lies in the first quadrant.
  • ratio Two to one is a ratio.
  • statistics We used statistics to study the survey.
  • variable The letter x is a variable in algebra.

Round 4: the moving earth (tectonic) 10

  • aftershock An aftershock shook the town the next day.
  • lithosphere The lithosphere is the rocky outer layer of Earth.
  • magnitude The earthquake had a magnitude of six.
  • seismic Scientists measure seismic waves after an earthquake.
  • stalactite A stalactite hangs from the roof of a cave.
  • stalagmite A stalagmite rises from the floor of a cave.
  • subduction In subduction, one plate slides under another.
  • tectonic Earth's tectonic plates move very slowly.
  • volcanic Gray volcanic ash covered the fields.
  • weathering Wind and rain cause weathering of rock.

Final round: reading and writing (stanza) 10

  • climax The climax is the most exciting part.
  • conflict The story's conflict is a storm at sea.
  • dialect The characters speak in a country dialect.
  • fable A fable ends with a lesson.
  • idiom Raining cats and dogs is an idiom.
  • legend The legend tells of a giant in the hills.
  • myth The myth explains why the seasons change.
  • resolution The resolution ties up every loose end.
  • stanza The poem has four lines in each stanza.
  • suspense The cliffhanger kept us in suspense.

How this list was compiled: Words chosen for a sixth grade classroom bee from the subjects a sixth grader studies (cells and living things, the ancient world, ratios and data, earth science, reading and writing), sorted into 5 rounds and given sentences. No contest's, publisher's or study booklet's list was opened or copied. No word here is on another spelling or phonics list of this site, the grade 5 to 7 lists and the grade 2, 3 and 5 bees included (checked on 2026-09-24). ONE RIGHT ANSWER: the headword line of every word was read on 2026-09-24 at https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q= plus the word (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language), and the English entry's homophones line and Alternative forms section at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ plus the word. Left out because a second spelling or form is given (cuneiform, also cuniform; histogram, also histogramme; numerical, also numeric; metamorphic, also metamorphous; dialogue, or dialog) or because a sound-alike is listed (organ and Oregon, spore and spoor, trait and tray, core and corps, mantle and mantel), and mummy, whose other sense is a word for mother. Chloroplast keeps its rare second form chloroplastid, and myth has a sound-alike only in some accents (miff), so no word carries one. Facts in sentences were read in the same dictionary's definitions on 2026-09-24: chloroplast (holds chlorophyll), protist (chiefly one-celled), vacuole (stores water in plant cells), stalactite and stalagmite (hang from the roof, rise from the floor of a cave), subduction (one plate forced below another), lithosphere (the outer part of the earth). SPELLINGS: every word is in the macOS word list. THE GRADE is our suggestion and no standard's. SENTENCES are ours, name no person, and none repeats a sentence in another dataset of this site (checked 2026-09-24). Licence: own work

How it works

These 49 words come from sixth grade subjects: cells, the ancient world, ratios and data, the moving earth, and reading and writing. Each round is read aloud word by word; grade 6 is our suggestion.

Read the full guide

What each round tests

The warm-up names cell parts and life processes (chloroplast, germinate). Round 2 is the ancient world (papyrus, aqueduct), Round 3 ratios and data (quadrant, outlier), Round 4 the moving earth (subduction, stalagmite). The final round is reading and writing: stanza, idiom, climax.

Reading the rounds aloud

Press Start round and the device says the word, reads its sentence and says the word again; the speller types, and the round is marked at the end. To run the bee out loud, choose Word list, press Print and read from the page. Retry the missed words then runs only the misses.

  • Stalactite has a c for ceiling and stalagmite a g for ground.
  • Hieroglyph ends in ph said as f, the same as graph.

Questions and answers

What are hard spelling words for 6th graders?

Long subject words with silent or doubled letters and Greek or Latin parts: chloroplast, hieroglyph, aqueduct, lithosphere, stalagmite. None of the 49 is on our grade 5, 6 or 7 lists, so a bee here reviews without repeating.

Why hieroglyph and not hieroglyphic?

The spelling bee vocabulary list already has hieroglyphic, so this page takes the noun: one sign of that writing. Both are spelled with ph and y.

Can I add words from our own units?

Yes. Edit this list opens the round in a box: add a word on its own line and the bee reads it too. Put a sentence after a colon, as in oasis: We rested at the oasis, and it is read with the word.

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