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Memorable words from the National Spelling Bee

Memorable words from the National Spelling Bee | iNFOnews.ca
The final spellers who made it into the evening televised final round gather around on stage after the completion of the morning of competition of the 2016 National Spelling Bee, in National Harbor, Md., Thursday, May 26, 2016. From left are, Sreeniketh A. Vogoti, 13, of Florida; Rutvik M. Gandhasri, 12, of California; Sylvie Lamontagne, 13, of Colorado; Snehaa Ganesh Kumar, 16, of Calif.; Mitchell A. Robson, 14, of Massachusetts; Nihar Saireddy Janga, 11, of Texas; Smrithi Upadhyayula, 13, of Texas; Jairam Jagadeesh Hathwar, 13, of New York. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

OXON HILL, Md. – Here are some memorable words and definitions from the final rounds of the 89th Scripps National Spelling Bee. Biological terms were particularly challenging, and shorter words often present a greater challenge than longer ones, which are made up of roots that spellers can piece together.

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CACOMIXL: A carnivorous mammal related to the raccoon. Cooper Komatsu of Culver City, California, got this right. He also could have gotten it right with two alternate spellings: “cacomistle” or “cacomixle.”

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SYLVILAGUS: A cottontail rabbit. Sylvie Lamontagne of Lakewood, Colorado, got this right, but she didn’t know it right away. Fidgeting nervously, she managed to piece it together by the roots.

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DIPNOOUS: Having both lungs and gills. Afua Ansah of Ghana spelled this correctly.

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TALAJE: A tick of the American tropics. Shashwat Patel of Harriman, New York, got this wrong.

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TIBOURBOU: A tropical evergreen tree. Nihar Janga of Austin, Texas, who at 11 could become the youngest champion on record and is the only speller who hasn’t missed a word either on the written test or onstage, got this right.

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SALELE: A Samoan-derived word for a small, dusky silver fish. Tejas Muthusamy of Glen Allen, Virginia, who made the top 10 the past two years, spelled this wrong and was eliminated.

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TYEE: A Chinook-derived word for a salmon. Shruthika Padhy of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, got this wrong.

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DULIA: Veneration paid to saints and angels in Roman Catholicism. Max Meyer of Shorewood, Minnesota, got this wrong.

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SOMMA: The rim of a volcanic crater. Shiv Dewan of North Canton, Ohio, got this wrong.

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Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/ben-nuckols.

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