Are You Smarter Than an 8th Grader?
Dev Shah of Largo, Florida, is presented with a trophy by E. W. Scripps Company CEO Adam Symson after he won the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Here are the 15 words a 14 YEAR OLD BOY spelled correctly to win the National Spelling Bee last night. I can’t even pronounce half of these! And that’s my JOB!
Below are the words that Florida 8th grader Dev Shah nailed… and their meanings from Merrian-Webster. Find your self-professed genius co-worker and have him or her take a stab at spelling these words.
Ardoise
“A grayish purple color.”
Grotesqueness
“The quality of being comically out of place or absurd.”
Cocomat
“A matting made of coconut fiber.”
Exhortation
“An address emphatically urging someone to do something.”
Glower
“To look or stare with sullen brooding annoyance or anger.”
Perioeci
“Those who live in the same parallel of latitude but on opposite meridians.”
Legerdemain
“Use of one’s hands conjuring tricks.”
Poliorcetics
“The art of conducing and resisting sieges.”
Schistorrhachis
“A not uncommon congenital defect in which a vertebra is malformed.”
Chiromancy
“Supposed prediction of a person’s future from interpreting the lines on the palms of their hands.”
Aegagrus
“An undomesticated goat.”
Rommack
“To romp or play boisterously.”
Tolsester
“A toll paid to the feudal lord by a tenant for liberty to brew and sell ale.”
Bathypitotmeter
“An instrument designed to record the current velocity and water temperature.”
Psammophile
“An organism that prefers or thrives in sandy soils.”
Spellcheck! Here are The Top Ten Words That We Can't Spell Well
10. Congratulations
We get tripped up on the ‘t’ because when people say it, you pronounce it with a ‘d’ as in congradulations. So if you spelled it correctly, congratulations!9. Diarrhea
Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
It’s the second ‘r’ that trips us up, but let’s be honest it’s not a word that you want to spell very often
8. Bougie
.
As in Booj-ee, it’s the ‘g’ that people forget, let’s be honest, it’s not a real word, it’s slang used for you’re friends that spend a lot of money on things that could get a lot cheaper. You’re not Bougie if you shop at Wal-Mart per se.
7. Maintenance
(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
People forget there is an ‘e’ after the ‘t’ and think it’s an ‘a’, just remember, there are two ‘a’s and two ‘e’s and you will always maintain the proper spelling
6. Niece
People can’t remember if it’s an ‘i’ before ‘e’ or some even spell it “Neece” but if you have a niece you should know how to spell it or just buy cards with it stamped on already.5. Beautiful
It’s the three vowels in a row that we are most likely to screw up. The word beautiful sounds terrific and it’s probably derived from French and they like to be extra with their vowels.
4. Receipt
. (Photo by Andrew Milligan-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
We get screwed up on the ‘e’ before ‘i’ rule again, but if keep the receipts it won’t be a problem.
3. Appreciate
People are never sure about how many ‘p’s are in Appreciate or they are not sure if it’s an ‘s’ or a ‘c’. If you don’t struggle with this than you’re under-appreciated!
2. Pneumonia
X-ray of the lungs of a sick person
This one is obvious, it’s the silent ‘p’ that trips us up. Again, why do we need it? It is a Latin word derived from the Greek word pneumon, meaning lung. Still Greek to me.
1. Restaurant
This one is Google’s highest misspelled word with an average of over 95,000 people a month looking it up. Probably because we are trying to find a great one to make reservations for. The RANT part is what gets most people, they want to add a ‘u’ to make it RAUNT, not rant, but we should all know how to spell it, after al we go to one every week! (at least)
