Spelling Bee Hive
The Winning Words
Here are a few of the orthographic challenges that contestants have had to face.
Words That Won
| 2009 | Laodicean | : | lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics |
| 2008 | guerdon | : | something that one has earned or gained : a reward, recompense, requital |
| 2007 | serrefine | : | a small forceps for clamping a blood vessel |
| 2006 | ursprache | : | a parent language; especially : one reconstructed from the evidence of later languages |
| 2005 | appoggiatura | : | an accessory embellishing note or tone preceding an essential melodic note or tone |
| 2004 | autochthonous | : | indigenous, native, aboriginal—used especially in nature |
| 2003 | pococurante | : | indifferent, nonchalant |
| 2002 | prospicience | : | the act of looking forward : foresight |
| 2001 | succedaneum | : | a person or thing that takes the place or function of another |
| 2000 | demarche | : | a course of action or maneuver |
| 1999 | logorrhea | : | excessive talkativeness or wordiness |
| 1998 | chiaroscurist | : | an artist who specializes in chiaroscuro |
| 1997 | euonym | : | a name well suited to the person, place, or thing named |
| 1996 | vivisepulture | : | the act or practice of burying alive |
Words That Stumped in the Past
| ankylosaur | : | any of a suborder (Ankylosauria) of herbivorous Cretaceous dinosaurs having a long low-lying thickset body covered dorsally with bony plates |
| coulombs | : | the practical meter-kilogram-second units of electric charge equal to the quantity of electricity transferred by a current of one ampere in one second |
| delitescent | : | lying hidden : obfuscated, latent |
| eleemosynary | : | of, relating to, or supported by charity |
| gauche | : | lacking social experience or grace; also : not tactful : crude |
| larghissimo | : | in as slow a manner as possible – used as a direction in music |
| pentateuchal | : | : of or relating to the first five books of the Old Testament |
| sussultatory | : | characterized by up-and-down vibrations of large amplitude – used of an earthquake |
| triskaidekaphobia | : | fear of the number 13 |
| zebu | : | any of various breeds of domestic oxen developed in India that are characterized by a large fleshy hump over the shoulders, a dewlap, pendulous ears, and marked resistance to the injurious effects of heat and insect attack |
