mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
As I’ve mentioned before, my spelling bee dreams died in the Lakeview Elementary School cafeteria in 1989. But that hasn’t soured me on the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The finals are tonight on ABC.
Think you can spell with the best of them? Today’s bonus quiz contains ten winning words from past Scripps National Spelling Bees. Can you tell which variation is spelled correctly?
After you take the quiz, let us know which word spelled your downfall in your own spelling bee career.
10/10
I was two bees from the National in either fifth or sixth grade, I forget. I was one of three kids left and I went out on “louvar,” a type of fish.
posted by Ira on 5-30-2008 at 11:36 am
I made it to the finals of our school’s spelling bee. They held an assembly in front of the whole school (about 400 people). There were eight of us. They gave us a practice word to start, to ease into the competition. Mine was “glaze.” I panicked and spelled it G-L-A-S-E. The judges had to decide whether that should count. After what seemed like hours, they decided to give me another shot. A few rounds later, I spelled fidelity with an ‘ey,’ ending my spelling career.
(I’m really nervous I spelled something wrong in that last paragraph.)
posted by Craig on 5-30-2008 at 11:37 am
Prospicience (I thought it would be prospiscience), and the musical tone one (I thought it was the one with one P instead of two, though I spelled the rest of the word right), and… serrafine (the forceps one, I don’t remember which one I thought it was).
I did the spelling bees in 1999 and 2000, and got second place at the regional bee both times. Since we were in Texas, there was no state bee–I think there are 5 regional bees in TX, from which you go straight to the national Scripps bee if you win first place–so if I’d been first I would have been at nationals. *sigh* Oh the fame and nerddom. :) I would have continued trying, except that after that I was in high school and UIL wouldn’t let home schoolers or private schoolers compete in the high school ones.
posted by Amber on 5-30-2008 at 11:37 am
Oh, and the first year, I misspelled “periwig,” a kind of wig, and said it was “perriwig.” The second year, it was “larigo,” which is part of a Western-style saddle (I think it was one of the cinch rings), and said it was “larogo.” I knew I’d gotten larigo wrong as soon as I said the first O, but they don’t let you go back and change it once you’ve made the mistake. I had been on my feet for something like 40 rounds and was hungry and tired and not focused like I should have been, sadly…
posted by Amber on 5-30-2008 at 11:47 am
Seventh grade, district regionals: I misspelled “boutinneer”. I was totally guessing, and didn’t put in the second “n”. The next year I lost at the school level on “subpoena” - which is kind of funny, considering that I’m now a lawyer!
posted by Liza on 5-30-2008 at 11:49 am
8/10….
i ended up with a third place trophy and a dictionary because of the word “mimicking”, i forgot the “k”….
posted by brian on 5-30-2008 at 11:52 am
I once bombed out in an early round by spelling “dilemma” as d-i-l-e-m-n-a. Our books showed the words in cursive so it was easy to get confused this way.
posted by Jeff on 5-30-2008 at 12:04 pm
7/10 At least I got Ursprache right!
I don’t remember which word was my downfall in 1997…I do remember the words I won the 1996 school bee with…and those were excise followed by boycott. I don’t remember what kicked me out of the regional bee that followed…I seem to only remember the triumphs and not the tragedies.
Do you remember the great Office quote (and I don’t…or at least not word-for-word) that was Dwight talking about his school spelling bee? He misspelled, in front of the whole school, the word failure.
posted by Fruppi on 5-30-2008 at 12:08 pm
I was waylaid in eighth grade at the Kansas state spelling bee by “souvenir,” which of course I’ve never gotten wrong since. I was told later it’s one of the most commonly misspelled words, but that made me feel no better.
posted by how 'bout "keepsake?" on 5-30-2008 at 12:12 pm
9/10, yet I somehow feel like such a failure. Not as bad a failure as Fruppi’s example from The Office, but still…
PS, best reCaptcha ever: Ann Murphy
posted by adrienne on 5-30-2008 at 12:27 pm
Elementary school, went out on “thermos”.
*hangs head in shame*
Awesome ReCaptcha: skins Even
posted by Jess on 5-30-2008 at 12:39 pm
I bombed out in 3rd grade on the word ‘Assistant’ had the double ’s’ in the wrong spot - asisstant. I have never spelled it wrong since.
2nd best Captcha - “Mrs. Dishes”
posted by shane on 5-30-2008 at 12:48 pm
Geez…7/10 - Guess I’m NOT smarter than a 5th grader.
posted by Christian on 5-30-2008 at 12:56 pm
80% - not terrible. Demarche and Appoggiatura did me in!
posted by JaneM on 5-30-2008 at 1:00 pm
In my 5th grade bee, I got out in the first round, on the word squirrel. I think I forgot an r. Now it’s a family joke and I still sometimes get little acorn or squirrel figurines as jokes. Thanks….
I guess that foreshadowed my complete dependence on spell check nowadays.
But oddly, I managed a 90% on this quiz
posted by Lily on 5-30-2008 at 1:10 pm
I was runner-up at my school two years in a row. 5th grade…sheriff. I put in two “R’s.” 6th grade…manse. I think I spelled it “mance.”
I always felt like such a bozo that I missed such simple words. I’m a huge spelling snob these days, and proud that my 9-year-old daughter gets straight A’s in spelling without studying. Spelling genetics?
posted by bre on 5-30-2008 at 1:13 pm
In the regional bee (one step before the nationals) I came in 5th because I couldn’t spell “marmot”… I spelled it with -et at the end instead.
posted by Liz on 5-30-2008 at 1:17 pm
I actually almost won the World’s Spelling Bee (and the jewel encrusted dictionary that came with that title) but I totally blanked and thought there was silent k in pants…
posted by Kevin on 5-30-2008 at 1:18 pm
Heh…, “joker” got me in my fifth grade spelling bee. In my elation for knowing that word like the back of my hand my southern drawl spelt it g-o-k-e-r. What kills me is that I know I spelt it right in my head, but my tongue didn’t apparently.
That day haunts me even now…, I was in the top three and I lossed it on GOKER…, what a joke. My parents love to bring it up every now and then to embarrass me. Ever since then I worked hard to get rid of my accent (which creeps up on me when I am tired) and became a spelling and grammar nazi (spell checker be damned).
Yeah…, my formative years are filled with stories like that.
I guess on the plus side I came out fairly normal. ::twitch twitch::
posted by Allen on 5-30-2008 at 1:18 pm
6/10
I ran through my school spelling bee in 1993, making it to the district round, where I placed third. I got ahead of myself on ‘Tentatively’ and forgot where I was in the word, only to then realize that I couldn’t go back and it was wrong.
posted by Vankook on 5-30-2008 at 1:23 pm
9/10. I won the school district bee in fifth grade, beating out all the snotty eighth graders. At the regional bee, I misspelled “tenement.” My teacher insisted that the announcer guy was pronouncing words incorrectly left and right, and she swore that he said “ten-A-ment.” It doesn’t matter, that word haunts me to this day.
posted by Jessica on 5-30-2008 at 1:34 pm
8/10. I won my district Knights of Columbus spelling bee with the help of “conjuration,” so there are benefits to playing Dungeons & Dragons, after all.
For several years, I ran an online trivia game where the players got 1 point for a correct answers and another point if that answer was spelled correctly.
God, I hope there are no typos in this post.
posted by Paul on 5-30-2008 at 2:36 pm
In eighth grade, I won the school spelling bee with “magnolia” and the county spelling bee with “newsstand” and “professor” (You had to spell a correct word on top of the one the person before you got wrong). In the state bee, I missed “desirous” because the reader couldn’t pronounce the word right. To this day, I swear he kept saying “desiress.” There’s a BIG difference. If only I had asked for a sentence…out in the second round. Ah, well.
7/10. double consonants always have confused me, but I’d like to thank my eymology teacher for the words I did get. Yay for roots!
posted by Eileen on 5-30-2008 at 2:55 pm
I did terrible.
One classic story I thought I would share is from back in grade school… There were only two people remaining in a school spelling bee: my brother and another girl. While the girl was getting these really tough words, my bro gets “science”, then “conscience”. What a joke!
posted by Brian on 5-30-2008 at 3:09 pm
In the 6th grade I won the regional school spelling bee (the final competitor misspelled ‘which’) and made it to the state finals. I was excited until I was given the word ‘wield’. I had never heard it before so I spelled w-h-e-e-l-e-d. Bzzz. wrong! Dammit!
posted by Lucky on 5-30-2008 at 3:15 pm
7/10
February. The damned silent “r”. That’s even my birthday month. I was in the school finals, thought I don’t remember the grade.
More heartbreaking is my memory of not getting a perfect score on my spelling test for the first time in the third grade. I mispelled “been” as “ben.” Ironically, I’m married to a Ben.
posted by Varuna on 5-30-2008 at 3:26 pm
90% on this quiz. I guess I can still spell. I went out of my county spelling bee in 6th grade after misspelling “malignant.” I am a physician now and I have never missed it since.
posted by Kirsten on 5-30-2008 at 3:30 pm
7/10 on the quiz. I got some words right on here that I’ve not seen in a long time. So perhaps I can still spell.
My word was parallel. I was doing the regional spelling bee and I missed that word. I probably misspelled it now. But I was so nervous because I was a part of the final two and I didn’t expect to make it that far. Plus, I was getting hungry. Tsk, tsk… oh well, the girl who beat me didn’t do so hot in the state and that was cool by me.
posted by Tina on 5-30-2008 at 3:39 pm
I got eight right (tripped up on appoggiatura and serrefine). I was first runnerup in the New York City Spelling Bee in 1963 to qualify for the National. Went out on “innuendoes” when I forgot the second e. Actually, I was more disappointed that I didn’t get the Encyclopedia Britannica (won a boom box instead) than not going to Washington.
posted by Sal D. on 5-30-2008 at 3:51 pm
8/10, missed appoggiatura and serrafine. not too shabby!!
I seem to remember doing well in spelling bees at my school but I never won…can’t remember any of the words we were asked to spell either!
posted by marisa on 5-30-2008 at 3:51 pm
I made it to second runner up as a 5th grader competing against both 5th and 6th graders until I tried to spell alfalfa with a ph.
posted by John on 5-30-2008 at 3:57 pm
9/10 I spelled “vivisepulture” wrong
posted by Bea on 5-30-2008 at 4:09 pm
Yikes… only got 60% and I was a spelling Bee Champion in Middle school.. District champ… but I guess at 43 now… the brain is leaving me..
oh well……
posted by Wismom on 5-30-2008 at 4:12 pm
Hedgehog. Who knew there was a second ‘e’?
posted by Chris on 5-30-2008 at 4:16 pm
Hyacinth. 5th grade, only Ellen and I remained. Never heard of the word before, took a guess and ended the word with an ‘e’. Ellen dropped the ‘e’ and took the prize.
posted by Artie on 5-30-2008 at 4:17 pm
I missed 7 and 8 Not enough double letters and I always have to decide between ience and iance as there is no rule
posted by Alice on 5-30-2008 at 4:20 pm
I got a 90%. I’ve always been really good at spelling…I missed appoggiatura…i dont recall ever hearing that word before…i misspelled it by only thinking there was one g instead of two. I won my elementary school bee when i was in 6th grade back in ‘92 and then lost at my county bee by spelling strenuous wrong…but misspelled words have always been a pet peeve of mine…since then i’ve always let someone know if they are misspelling a word…annoying habit, i know.
posted by Kelli on 5-30-2008 at 4:21 pm
This is way embarrassing, but I spelled the word “break” wrong in my 2nd grade spelling bee. I misunderstood the sentence and recited the word “brake”. So you could see by the word I missed that it was early on in the match. I blame my mother….. she wouldn’t quiz me.
posted by Shaneka on 5-30-2008 at 4:40 pm
I went to my state spelling bee one year and didn’t make it past the written round, although I vividly remember sitting next to the eventual winner. He made me laugh when the pronouncer said he’d also heard the word “chassis” pronounced “chass-is” as well as “chass-ee”… he said something like “oh come on!” and I could just about hear his eyes rolling. The only other word I remember from the written test was “ratatouille” which I encountered for the first time in my life that day. I’ve never misspelled that one since, let me tell you! (That word was also good for a laugh watching Akilah and the Bee, when her little friend is stalling onstage for her.)
I don’t remember what I missed the following year, but in my last year of eligibility, I went out on “physician” in the county round. I couldn’t believe they were giving me such an easy word, and in my rush to get through it I accidentally said “p-y” and that was it. I still watch the bee on TV every year, and those kids are amazing!
posted by Rachel on 5-30-2008 at 4:48 pm
Wow I did awful on this quiz! I was a Spelling Bee kid in elementary school, though. My first year I was out on the word address. In my defense, I knew how to spell it but it was pronounced incorrectly. He pronounced with the emphasis on the dress part instead of a long a in the beginning. I left out one of the D’s. Oy.
The next Bee I won and when I went to the district Bee I totally freaked when I got in front of the 500 or so people that were there. My first word was hawk. I forgot to say the H in the beginning and you can’t go back and respell the word. I was the first out and was humiliated. The next person to get out was two rounds later! I had to watch about 40 words get spelled right before I was joined by the next kid. So I definitely feel for those kids who have to spell words I’ve never heard of. Hooray new generation of smart kids!
My third Bee I won and went onto the district again. I made it through the first round this time but don’t remember what word I lost on.
I definitely feel for those kids who have to spell words I’ve never heard of. Hooray new generation of smart kids!
posted by Tricia on 5-30-2008 at 4:50 pm
Bah, 8/10.
Believe it or not, I had never been in a spelling bee. My school had math bees, but they never held a spelling bee for some reason. My mother, on the other hand, was just a wiz in the bee circuit, they actually postponed a county spelling bee because she had the mumps.
posted by Nicole on 5-30-2008 at 4:57 pm
I don’t remember ever losing when I was in grade school. They had me competing against kids 2 years ahead of me and I just aged out. They didn’t have spelling bees when I was in high school. I got 80% today, so I must have killed off more than a few brain cells in the last 35 years!
posted by Cyn McCollum on 5-30-2008 at 5:01 pm
I made it to regionals in 8th grade. I missed praline, spelling it “prauline” because it was pronounced PRAW-line. Never before had I encountered that word, but it has popped up in every ice cream shop I have visited since.
posted by Sternitzky on 5-30-2008 at 5:36 pm
Not a speller - I’m a numbers person! Still, happy with 6/10. =)
posted by Dawn on 5-30-2008 at 5:50 pm
Middle school bee… they gave me “agnostic.”
“Spell ‘eggnostic.’”
“Erm, could you repeat that, please?”
“Eggnostic.”
So I spelled it like she pronounced it. Not so much.
posted by Kid on 5-30-2008 at 6:58 pm
I got 8 correct, but never made it past the first round of a school spelling bee. I’m much more of a visual person… need to write it down and not in my head. Well now I’m a copy editor, so I think that goes to prove that spelling bees aren’t worth much.
posted by Lyn on 5-30-2008 at 7:28 pm
I actually made it to the final 2 in my spelling bee in fifth grade but I don’t recall such words during mine but I still got all 10 out of 10 correct.
posted by Michelle on 5-30-2008 at 8:59 pm
7/10, alas.
I missed “ligament” in my elementary school spelling bee. For some reason I overthought it and decided it must be spelled “ligement.”
posted by Celeste M. on 5-30-2008 at 11:07 pm
In my 7th grade spelling bee they used the same word until someone got it correct and one of the words was ‘antecedent’, which no one had ever heard before. The funny part is that everyone just kept spelling anticedent, until one girl, miraculously, decided to spell it correctly.
I lost the county spelling bee in 8th grade on “racketeer”; after getting the definition and origin twice I still said “raqueteer”.
posted by Elie P. on 5-30-2008 at 11:44 pm
I got 7/10.. I won 2 adult spelling bees a few years ago with a friend. Guess it paid off!
posted by Gail on 5-31-2008 at 12:45 am
where’s my comment? it didn’t come up..
posted by Gail on 5-31-2008 at 12:52 am
In 8th grade, I was in the spelling bee and came in second. My word was inoculator. (I spelled it with a double n, because I couldn’t remember. I asked every question I could to stall for time.) My opponent’s word was entomb. I’m still bitter 14 years later…. Totally not fair. My opponent (who is still a friend), admitted that she couldn’t spell my word either.
posted by Amy on 5-31-2008 at 8:14 am
My sixth grade nemesis: fuselage. Oh, the ignominy!
posted by loripop on 5-31-2008 at 10:56 am
I am as surprised as anyone at 10/10.
posted by Ryan on 5-31-2008 at 4:08 pm
I didn’t make it to my schools spelling bee. I lost in preliminary rounds with ‘badminton’. It was the ‘n’.
posted by Mimi on 5-31-2008 at 7:33 pm
Bleh, 8 out of 10. Ah well…
Back in middle school, I was in the school spelling bee and got to probably the eighth or ninth round and went out on the word “alkaline.” I spelled it “alkeline.”
The girl next to me got “enchilada,” that lucky duck. She broke into a huge grin when the announcer said it.
posted by Jenn on 5-31-2008 at 9:31 pm
6/10 not bad for words i’ve never seen before, never had an official spelling bee at our school, but i always did well on the weekly stuff. well, my senior year (HS)I had to take a college prep course for my last english credit.One day during the spelling quiz, the teacher was called to the office.she asked “kathleen”:( apple polishin’ bitch) to finish giving the quiz.once she left, “K”gave all of us the answers and we turned in our papers.the next day the teacher figured out what had happened by the improved scores, she was amazed by how many people aced the test.as she read off the scores everyone had a good laugh,but when mine was read (100%) they thought i had cheated as well and laughed but ms.D pointed out that i usually aced them anyway! to everyone’s surprise. was known more as a class clown/jock…..WISH I’D GONE TO COLLEGE NOW !
posted by drain surgeon on 6-1-2008 at 2:20 am
I won the school spelling bee twice .. in 5th and 6th grade. I remember spelling raspberry right, and thinking the other kid was dumb for messing it up. Anyways, at regionals I missed on heifer and indecisive .. had never heard the words before in my life. The next year, my brother went and he was in the top 6 and missed on phenomenon; I was pretty upset about it.
posted by Reggie on 6-1-2008 at 3:18 pm
70!!!!!
posted by Louisa on 6-1-2008 at 7:53 pm
10/10! Holy carp! Errr, I mean, crap!
I am still flabbergasted. I mean, I’m a writer, but still…
The ONLY spelling bee I ever took part in was in 3rd grade. I misspelled “chief” and was eliminated early and with great embarrassment, as I was already known as a voracious reader. And now, five million years later… oh, if they could see me now!
posted by Caroline on 6-1-2008 at 8:46 pm
90% - I will never forget how to spell “Hawaii” - third grade spelling word nemesis.
posted by Swampqueen on 6-1-2008 at 10:10 pm
Got 10/10, probably mostly because I love watching the national spelling bee and have for the last 5-8 years.
I was school spelling bee champ in 5th, 6th and 7th grade, but can’t for the life of me remember what words I won on. I do remember that in 6th grade, another girl and I went for probably 10-15 rounds back and forth, just her and me. She was great, but she tripped up and I ended up winning. To be fair, this was in Alaska, so going to state probably didn’t mean as much as it does in some other states. Back then, there was only one rep from all of Alaska, so I never made it to nationals.
8th grade, though… my last chance to get to state. Screwed up on assassinate. Still hurts to this day.
Josh
posted by Josh on 6-2-2008 at 8:33 am
I made it to the regionals when I was in 8th grade in Chattanooga, Tennessee; I was one of only eight or nine kids still on the stage when I went out on “bodega.” It still smarts because I KNEW how to spell the word; I was just so tired by that point (it was about 10:00 p.m.) that the wrong letter (’a') slipped out of my mouth.
posted by Krikket on 6-2-2008 at 8:43 am
70%…not that bad…right???
posted by Summer on 6-2-2008 at 7:17 pm
8/10 — stupid logorrhea. I knew it was two r’s but clicked the wrong radio button.
In 2nd grade I was out of the spelling bee on the word “money.” I believe I left out the e.
I remember watching the National Bee a couple years ago and some poor kid from the South got “lefse” as his word. You could totally tell from his incredulity that he’d never heard the word before. There’s a benefit to living in Minnesota after all!
posted by Julia on 6-5-2008 at 7:44 pm
10/10 I wish I had been in spelling bees, it has always been my strong point.
posted by Caroline T on 6-7-2008 at 11:38 am
10/10. I wish I had been in bees, spelling was always a strength of mine.
posted by Caroline T on 6-7-2008 at 11:41 am
Went to Catholic school. Spellers divided into two lines: boys / girls. Girls tried to spell first, if missed it went to a boy. You sat down if you missed it. The girls went down fast. But at the end, there was one speller standing. A GIRL. ME !
I won a plastic glow-in-the-dark crucifix which I carried around and fiddled with in my coat pocket all winter.
Only thing I ever won besides 1/2 lb. bacon at a Church Casino Night with a spin of some type of vertical wheel.
I can still diagram sentences thanks to the nuns.
posted by L Merry on 6-13-2008 at 12:29 pm
8/10… I never heard of Appoggiatura and I really did know Chiaroscurist, not sure what happened there.
I made it to the county finals when I was in 5th grade… I am a very good speller, apparently. I got eliminated on my second word: respite. SIGH.
I hate that word to this day.
posted by Jesszika on 6-18-2008 at 2:50 pm
10/10. I surprised myself.
I’d say this makes up for misspelling “Mediterranean” in a middle school spelling bee. I thought I was going to win, and to this day I feel like I was cheated - when I finished, I was convinced that I spelled it right. But when the bell dings, you have to sit down.
Thankfully I never had the urge to become a competitive speller. Now I just try to spell everything correctly when I type, to beat the red underline.
posted by dave on 6-18-2008 at 4:59 pm
Eighth grade. I won the school spelling bee, and I was at the district finals.
I broke my foot that day, but I didn’t go to the doctors, so I could barely walk, and, and is turns out, think.
Regency.
I mean, come on. My mind went blank - I couldn’t even think of what the word was, or what it meant. Worst moment of my life. And then I had to sit down, and the next word was like, waterfall or something.
posted by Alyson on 6-18-2008 at 7:46 pm
9/10.
I made it to the regionals in 5th grade and lost on cameraderie. I had no idea what that was.
posted by sans on 8-8-2008 at 7:28 am
8/10. Missed prospicience and appoggiatura on this quiz.
I was fortunate enough to be able to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1994. Unfortunately, I only made it to the 2nd round where I missed “sauerbraten”.
posted by amanda on 11-9-2008 at 11:52 pm