The middle school-age spellers who make it to the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee spend years studying roots and language patterns and poring over the dictionary in order to give themselves a chance to be crowned bee champion. They use those skills to decipher what letters could possibly make the sounds in words that everyday English speakers never hear, much less use in conversation.
Here are 10 words taken from a round in the 2022 finals, along with their definitions. Listen carefully: Can you spell any of them correctly?
ANSWERS
1. dasypodid
2. martinete
3. phenocoll
4. tyrolienne
5. opisometer
6. ditalini
7. coracidium
8. charadriiform
9. ajivika
10. Pachytylus
