Latest news with #Merriam-WebsterUnabridgedOnline
Boston Globe
27-05-2025
- Boston Globe
To win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, contenders must also master geography
Advertisement Along with SAT-style, multiple-choice vocabulary questions, geographical terms have altered the way spellers prepare for the bee, which began Tuesday and concludes Thursday at a convention center outside Washington. Mastering them can require an out-of-fashion skill: rote memorization. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Geographical words can be super hard sometimes because there's no roots to break it down or sometimes you don't get a language of origin. It will say 'unknown origin' or the dictionary doesn't say,' said Avinav Prem Anand, a 14-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, who's competing this year for the fourth and final time. 'Basically, you have to memorize them because that's the only thing you can do.' Avinav put his preparation to use in Tuesday's preliminary rounds when he breezed through Sapporo, the capital of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Others were not so fortunate: 12-year-old Eli Schlosser of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, heard the dreaded bell because he was unfamiliar with Terre Haute, the western Indiana city. He went with 'terrahote.' Advertisement Last year, the Randhawa family of Corona, California, saw its decade-long spelling journey end when Avi misspelled Abitibi, the name of a shallow lake in northeastern Ontario and western Quebec. 'It's beyond the pale of what anybody would consider a reasonable geographical word, a small lake in Canada that not even my Canadian friends had heard of. Not even a top-50 size lake in Canada,' Rudveep Randhawa said. 'It's just bizarre. In all the years with geographical words, we had seen words of some significance, they may be capitals of smaller countries, or they may be some port city that had significance, things of that nature.' Yet for those who might find geographical terms unfair, Scripps has a message: Study harder. 'Per our contest rules, all words listed in Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, except those that are labeled 'archaic' or 'obsolete,' are fair,' said Molly Becker, the editorial director at Cincinnati-based Scripps and a member of the panel that selects words for the competition. Scripps considers encouraging intellectual curiosity as part of the bee's mission, and if kids with designs on the trophy have to learn more geography in order to prepare, that's arguably a good thing. 'You never know what word will stand out to a speller and spark a lifelong interest or introduce them to a new concept,' Becker said. Longtime spelling coach Grace Walters, a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Kentucky, cringed at the memory of Abitibi. 'Geo is definitely something that is feared by spellers,' Walters said, calling it 'a daunting task to study.' Advertisement 'But if geo is unfair because it doesn't have patterns, that would mean other categories like trademarks and personal eponyms and words of unknown origin would also be unfair,' she said. Some spellers embrace the challenge. Faizan Zaki, last year's runner-up who's competing again this year, was thrilled to hear Abitibi and Hoofddorp — a town in the Netherlands — in 2024 because he had seen those words before. 'There's actually a section in Merriam-Webster that is dedicated to just geographical words, so sometimes when I'm tired from studying normal words, I take a break and I browse through that list of geographical words that they have,' said Faizan, a 13-year-old from Allen, Texas. You heard that right: When Faizan gets tired of studying, he 'takes a break' by studying more. 'Pretty much, that's my life,' he said. 'But yeah, it's definitely enjoyable. I don't hate it or anything.'
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
4-time regional champ: General Brown seventh grader again headed to Scripps National Spelling Bee
Mar. 7—BROWNVILLE — Inside General Brown Junior-Senior High School on Thursday night, 18 of the top spellers from tri-county school districts took the stage to flex their spelling abilities. The annual Scripps Regional Spelling Bee concluded with a fourth-consecutive win for seventh grader Micah R. Sterling. The General Brown Central School student finished in first place after correctly spelling "gingivitis." "Most of (the words) I knew, but some of them caught my eye," Micah said after the bee. Micah started studying hard in January, his father Sean said. Micah will be heading to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May, the 100th year of the competition. Micah finished 22nd, out of 245 contestants from across the country, at last year's national competition. He moved up considerably after finishing 74th in 2023 and 89th in 2022. Micah said that his goal for this year is to finish better than 22nd. "It's a whole different ball game down there," Micah's dad, Sean Sterling, said. "It's a real spectacle and this year's the 100th year so it should be fun." Micah's mom Crystal said she is proud of her son. "He's taken on more of his own studying this year," she said. "We've kind of taken him by the hand all around through but this year he's done a lot more on his own and he's just showing more initiative and doing the work." Micah will receive a one-year subscription to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online dictionary; the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, 2025 United States Mint Proof Set courtesy of Jay Sugarman; a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica; digital access to the Watertown Daily Times for the rest of the school year; and a $50 gift card to Jreck Subs for finishing in first place. In second place was Johann Enriquez, of Carthage Central School, who won a Watertown Daily Times digital subscription for the remainder of the school year, and a $25 Jreck Subs gift card. Finishing in third place was Catherine Wilay, also from Carthage Central. She brings home digital access to the Watertown Daily Times and a $10 Jreck Subs gift card. The other students competing Thursday night included Jonah E. Aucter, of Beaver River Central School; Liam P. Goldie, of Clifton-Fine Central School; Lucas Valley, of Belleville-Henderson Central School; Felix P. Castro, of General Brown Central School; and Alexis L. Mandap, of Indian River Central School. Also competing were Sawyer N. Robirds, of Indian River Central School; Owen M. Pitrik of LaFargeville Central School; Adele D. Andrews of Lowville Academy and Central School; Claire Phillips of Sackets Harbor Central; Julia H. M. Janz, of South Jefferson Central School; River C. Rolando, of South Jefferson Central School; James H. McDonough, of Thousand Islands Central School; Rielley P. Schoen, of the Town of Webb Union Free School District; Lucas J. LorJuste, of Watertown City School District; and Sophia Goebert, of Watertown CIty School District. The bee is sponsored by the Watertown Daily Times and Jreck Subs in coordination with the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services. The bee had 18 contestants from 14 school systems in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. Students from fifth grade through eighth grade were among those competing. For those looking to compete next year, they better bring their "A" game. Micah said he hopes to be back in the competition.
