It was actually quite last-minute preparation for my spelling competition, but I would like to share with you the lists I prepared which (possibly) helped me make it to the finals.
I borrowed a few books on spelling from the library, which basically just supplied me with more words, on top of those that were given to me by my father, my mother and my grandparents.
Below is the list of words I misspelt in a book called "Dictionary for Misspellers", a book which I bought from a book sale. I know, some of the words I misspelt below are out of carelessness. Just take your time to look.
Words from A-Z I spelled wrongly in “Dictionary for Misspellers”
A: accension (homonym of ascension), allopathy, appurtenance
B: ballistic, battalion, benefiting (only 1 ‘t’), besiege
C: carburettor, causerie, chow mein, circumference, cognizance, colicky, comptroller, cortege
D: dahlia, decelerate, decibel, deify, deign, demarcation, demurrage (pronounced di-mur-ij), depressant, desecrate, desiccate, diadem, diphtheria, diphthong, diptych (pronounced dip-tik), discotheque, dissension, domicile, dormouse, dulcet, dysentery
E: echelon, éclat (pronounced ey-kla), eclectic, efflorescence, effrontery, enamour, esprit (pronounced es-pree), exchequer, excise, expatriate
F: farce, fief, foundry, fricassee, fusillade
G: garrison, gauche (pronounced gohsh), gauge (pronounced geyj, homonym of gage), gendarme (pronounced zhan-darm), Gnostic, gnu, guarantor (pronounced gar-uhn-tawr), gymkhana
H: hackney, heterogeneity, heyday (‘e’ not ‘a’)
I: ignominious, immanent (not to be confused with ‘imminent’), imminence (‘e’ not ‘a’), impedance (‘a’ not ‘e’), implausible, impugn (pronounced im-pyoon), inadmissible (‘si’ not ‘sa’), inchoate (pronounced in-koh-it), incumbent (‘e’ not ‘a’), insouciant (pronounced in-soo-see-uhnt), insular, intelligentsia, inveigle, issuance, isthmus (pronounced is-muhs)
J: jalopy, jocund (pronounced jok-und), jugglery, junkie, juror (cannot be spelt ‘jurer’), justifiable, jettison
K: kerosene (cannot be spelt ‘kerosine’)
L: lacerate, lachrymose, lackadaisical, lackey, lacuna, laissez faire (pronounced les-ey fair), Lamaism, lambaste (pronounced lam-beyst), langsyne, lapel, lariat, larkspur, lascivious, lassitude, laudatory, leper (pronounced lap-per), lieu (pronounced loo, homonym of loo), liquefy, liqueur, lissome (pronounced lis-uhm), lorgnette (pronounced lawrn-yet), lucre, lyre (homonym of liar)
M: Machiavellian, Madeira, maelstrom, malapropism, malleable, malediction, malefactor, malefic, mannequin, masseur (pronounced muh-sur), mastiff, matinee (pronounced mat-ney), mélange (pronounced mey-lahnzh), menses, mien (pronounced meen, homonym of mean), molecular (pronounced muh-lek-yuh-ler), morass
N: naïveté (nah-eev-tey), naphtha, nascent, nasturtium, newsstand, nonpareil, notoriety, novitiate, numbskull
O: obeisance, objet d’art (pronounced awb-zhe-dar), oblivion, obsolescence, occurrence, octogenarian, ohm, ohmmeter, ophthalmic, osier
P: padre (pronounced pah-drey), pagan (pey-guhn), Paleolithic, palisade, papier-mâché (pronounced pey-per-muh-shey), paradisiacal, pariah (pronounced puh-rahy-uh), paramountcy, paranoia, parochial, parody, parole, pastor, patriarch, patrician, patricide, paucity, pavilion, peaceable, pennant, pharaoh, philately, pilloried (pronounced pil-uh-reed), pipette, pique (homonym of peak, peek), plait (homonym of plate), plebeian, plebiscite, plenteous, pleurisy, poesy, Portuguese, progeny, proletariat, propeller, proprietary, psychedelic, puerile, purview, putrefy, pyorrhoea
Q: quagmire, quorum
R: rapprochement (pronounced rap-rohsh-mahn), rarefy, recommittal, reconnaissance, reconnoitre (pronounced ree-kuh-noi-ter), recoup (pronounced ri-koop, but coup: Koo), renege (pronounced ri-nig), reparable, repartee (pronounced rep-er-tee), requital, rhinoceros, rodeo, rollick, rubicund
S: Sabbath, saccharine, sacrament, sagacious, salutary, samovar, sanatorium, sangfroid (pronounced sahn-frwar), sarsaparilla, saturnine, satyr (pronounced sa-ter), sauté (pronounced soh-tey), scathe, sceptre, sciatica, scimitar, scourge, scurrilous, secede, sentinel, sentry (homonym of century), severance, shepherd, silicone, singe, singeing (not to be confused with ‘singing’), skein (pronounced skeyn), sovereignty (cannot be spelt ‘sovereignity’, pronounced sov-rin-tee), squalor (only 1 ‘l’), straitjacket, straitlaced, suitor (not ‘e’), supersede (‘s’ is not ‘c’), sycophant (pronounced sih-kuh-fuh-nt, sounds like ‘sick of ferns)
T: tableau (pronounced ta-bloh), taffeta, tandem, tannery, tartan, tassel (‘el’ not ‘le’), tawdry, temperance, tenement, tequila (pronounced teh-kee-lah), tetanus, titillate, tonneau (pronounced tuh-noh), tonsillitis, torpor, toupee (pronounced too-pey), trachoma, trammel, troupe (homonym of troop), trustee (homonym of trusty), turbid
U: upbraid, upheaval
V: vacillate, vacuity, Vaseline, vellum, veneer, Venetian, verdant, vernal, vestal, veto (only 1 ’e’), vicarious, vilify, vinyl, viscid, vitriol, voile, volte-face, voluntaryism, voluptuous
W: wainscot, wean, wherefore, wherewithal, writ
X: xanthous, xebec, xiphoid, xoanon, xystus
Y: yeoman, yodel, yokel
Z: zephyr, zinnia
So, not enough? Below is the list of my misspelt words from a Consolidated Word List taken from the Scripps official website. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a much bigger spelling bee, compared to our National Spelling Championship, because the finals of the competition has over a few hundred participants. If you look at http://www.spellingbee.com/, you will know that there are study resources specially provided for spelling participants to study, though the people who select words for the competition do not refer to these resources, according to the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Here it goes: (there were so many words I only managed to do it till letter D, but I'll only display till letter A)
A: abalienation, abattoir, abecedarius, aberrant, abhorrence, abidance, ablution, abscess, abscissa, abscondence, abseil, abstemious, abstruse, abysmal, acarology, accede, accentuate, accipiter, acclivity, accordion, accrescent (not to be confused with ‘acescent’), accrual, acetylene, achondrite, acicular, acolyte, acoustician, acrimonious, acuate, aculeate, adactylous, adherence, adiaphorism, adipose, adjunct, adminicle, admonitory, Adonis, advisory, advocaat, Aeschylean, affianced, affidavit, agellicism, agglomerate, agglutinate, aggrandizement, agiotage, agnostic, agoraphobia, agrarian, agriology, agronomy, ailanthus, akropodion, alacrity, albatross, albedo, aleatoric, aliferous, aliquot, allargando, allayment, allemande, alopecia, alpaca, alpenglow, altazimuth, altiplano, amadelphous, amalgam, amanuensis, ambuscade, amenable, amertoy, amortization, amygdaline, anabasis, anabibazon, analects, analemma, analgesic, analysand, anastrophe, anaudia, anemochore, anglaise, anhydride, anisete, ankh, anneal, anodyne, anomalous, anosmic, anschluss, antecedent, antecessor, antediluvian, anthroponymy, antilogy, antimacassar, apartheid, aperitif, aperture, aphelion, aphid, apiarian, apiculus, apocalypse, apocryphal, apogee, apolaustic, apoplexy, apostle, apothecary, apparatchik, appellation, appurtenance, apropos, apsidal, aqueduct, arabesque, arboreal, arbuscel, archangel, archivalia, arenaceous, aretalogy, argosy, aristoi, Armageddon, armaments, armistice, arpeggio, arrasene, artifice, artillerist, ascribable, aspartame, asphyxiant, astrogator, atelier, atrabilious, atrichia, attrition, aureity, Aurelian, auricle, auriferous, autobahn, autodidact, avalement, averred, aviator, avocet, avoirdupois, axiology, axunge, ayatollah, azotea
Today, I wanted to talk about something else, but I decided to finish off the topic about spelling bees before entering a fresh new topic.
So, to round this up, I would like to tell you (you should know already if you've been reading the news) that the 2009 Scripps Champion has recently been announced! She is none other than Kavya Shivashankar, a 13 year old girl from Kansas!
The 2009 Scripps national spelling bee started off with 293 spellers. After using her tremendous ability of spelling to breeze through the words thrown at her, she ended with a grand finale: the word "Laodicean".
The word which the second speller misspelt, I think, was "passacaglia", if I'm not wrong. But I'm surprised at how well they can spell, since this is the first year I've actually noted the winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Congratulations!
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