A method of directly precipitating a spherical amorphous silica in a high yield by adding a carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a coagulation growing agent in a step of neutralizing the alkali silicate with an acid. The CMC having a particular etherification degree and a particular polymerization degree is added in an amount of from 1 to 100% by weight reckoned as SiO.sub.2 with respect to silica in the alkali silicate, whereby the whole silica particles turn into spherical amorphous silica particles having high sphericalness. There can be obtained spherical amorphous silica particles having a BET specific surface area of from 25 to 800 m.sup.2 /g, an apparent specific gravity of from 0.1 to 0.8 and a particle diameter of from 0.2 to 50 .mu.m cheaply and in a high yield.