spelling bee

American

noun

a spelling competition won by the individual or team spelling the greatest number of words correctly; spelldown.

spelling bee British

noun

a contest in which players are required to spell words according to orthographic conventions

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of spelling bee

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A lot of them had excelled in school: We talked to a boy that had just won a spelling bee, for example.

From Slate • Mar. 20, 2026

In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle corrected a 12-year-old spelling bee contestant on camera, incorrectly instructing him to add the letter “e” onto the end of the word “potato.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026

On the other side sits Ainsley, who would lose a grade-school spelling bee to a bag of hair extensions yet manages to get into college as a cheerleading squad walk-on.

From Salon • Nov. 16, 2025

Preparing for a spelling bee today requires more concentration and technique than it did decades ago, Cashore said.

From Seattle Times • May 31, 2024

Olly: huh. cool Olly: ever notice how a lot of the national spelling bee finalists are all homeschooled?

From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023