The finals of the National Spelling Bee were yesterday and Zaila Avant-garde was crowned the winner. The first African American to win the prestigious competition!
Spelling is HARD on a normal day, but when you're in a national spelling bee with the greatest spellers across the country then spelling becomes EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. Here's a list of all the words from rounds 12-18, which are the hardest rounds of the competition, with their definitions.
murraya: a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees
retene: a crystalline hydrocarbon C18H18 isolated especially from pine tar, rosin oil, and various fossil resins but usually prepared from abietic acid and related compounds by dehydrogenation; 1-methyl-7-isopropyl-phenanthrene
neroli oil: a fragrant pale yellow essential oil obtained from flowers chiefly of the sour orange and used especially in cologne and as a flavoring
Nepeta: Catmint, (any of a genus (Nepeta) of Old World temperate-zone herbs of the mint family)
fewtrils: things of little value
fidibus: a paper spill for lighting pipes
haltere: one of a pair of club-shaped organs in a dipteran fly that are the modified second pair of wings and function as sensory flight stabilizers
athanor: a self-feeding digesting furnace that maintained a uniform and durable heat and was used by alchemists
depreter: a finish for a plastered wall made by pressing small stones in the soft plaster
consertal: of an igneous rock, of a texture in which the irregularly shaped crystals interlock
psychagogic: attractive, persuasive, inspiring; of or relating to psychagogy
duchesse: a chaise longue with arms that was popular in 18th century France; or less commonly duchess, a fine lustrous rayon or silk satin for clothing; a very small cream puff with sweet or savory filling used as dessert or served with cocktails
thanatophidia: venomous snakes
ambystoma: capitalized: a genus (the type of the family Ambystomidae) of common salamanders confined to America and characterized by amphicoelous vertebrae, short prevomers, and internal fertilization; plural: a salamander of the genus Ambystoma
theodolite: a surveyor's instrument for measuring horizontal and usually also vertical angles
ancistroid: shaped like a hook : resembling a hook
chrysal: a transverse line of crushed fibers in the belly of an archery bow beginning as a pinch
cloxacillin: a semisynthetic oral penicillin C19H17ClN3NaO5S effective especially against staphylococci which secrete beta-lactamase regolith: unconsolidated residual or transported material that overlies the solid rock on the earth, moon, or a planet
I'm fairly positive I would spell every single one of these words incorrectly. How many do you think you could spell? (If you say more than two then you're a liar and you know it.)