The National Spelling Bee Semifinals were amazing! All of the spellers at the Bee are encouraging and supportive of one another. When Syamantak Payra, an 8th grader from Texas, missed the word “circumforaneous” and was eliminated, the other spellers and the audience gave him a standing ovation because he was a finalist last year and could have won this year.
There were so many great words, but I found the following to be the most interesting:
1. gehenna – a place or state of misery.
2. urceiform – shaped like an ancient Roman jug or pitcher with one handle.
3. tachytely – evolution at a fast rate resulting in speedy differentiation of new types.
4. ananke – a personification of compelling necessity or ultimate fate to which even the gods must yield.
5. concinnate – put together with neat propriety.
6. laulau – meat and fish wrapped in leaves and baked or steamed.
7. ormolu – a brass used to imitate gold and is used for decoration.
8. cadelle – the larva or adult of a small black beetle destructive to stored grain and sometimes preying on other insects.
9. retrorse – bent backward or downward.
10. serictery – the silk-producing gland of a caterpillar.
I am off to go and watch the finals right now!
the word explorer 