# Could YOU win the spelling bee? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 1, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342 "2007-06-01T14:36:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/1 "2007-06-01T14:36:22Z")
[CNN](http://www.cnn.com) has a quiz up that goes with the story about the National Spelling Bee winner that gives ten words that have been the “deciding word” in former bees. I missed number 6 and number 10. But it is a lot easier as multiple choice… How’d you do? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/2 "2007-06-01T14:49:22Z")
Looks like a rolling news link, it’s got nothing to say about spelling bees now. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/3 "2007-06-01T14:58:44Z")
Try [here](http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/05/31/spelling.bee.ap/index.html) and down on the left it has Interactive “test your spelling skills”. I got them, but only because I could look at the multiple choice! Lyceum, antediluvian and kamikaze were the only ones I would have known without the hint. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/4 "2007-06-01T14:59:51Z")
Try this link. Quiz on the left. FWIW I got 9/10. I missed “autochthonous.” ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/5 "2007-06-01T15:01:04Z")
No way. I’m a mediocre speller at best. It gets worse the older I get. I often find that a word looks weird, but I can’t make it look right. Yesterday I had trouble with _alibi_. I finally had to look it up. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/6 "2007-06-01T15:06:30Z")
10/10. I won my school and city spelling bee when I was in 6th grade. Came in 4th in the county, dammit. Just two more spots up and I’d have been able to go onto Sacramento. The word I missed out on was: “skein”. And I’d already been knitting for years at that point! Yes, I’m still a little grumpy about that, seventeen years later. ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/7 "2007-06-01T15:09:15Z")
Noap ---
**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/8 "2007-06-01T15:33:14Z")
Well that stinks. Ok, I found it on the [CNN education page](http://www.cnn.com/EDUCATION/). It’s the “interactive” that says test your spelling skills. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/9 "2007-06-01T15:38:13Z")
I missed number 1. But no, I couldn’t win the spelling bee. I probably wouldn’t have gotten any right if it wasn’t multiple choice (well maybe I could’ve fumbled my way through a couple of them). Most of them I got right due to process of elimination rather than actually knowing how to spell them. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/10 "2007-06-01T16:41:17Z")
Fck no! ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/11 "2007-06-01T16:55:17Z")
10/10! I’ve always been good at spelling. Not sure I could actually spell some of those out of thin air, though. Having them to look at helped, since in the cases where I didn’t actually know the word, one of them just stood out as “right” to me. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/12 "2007-06-01T16:55:29Z")
10 for 10! I rule the hive, baby! Yeah, if I’d had to spell those words instead of choosing the right one, I would have been toast. There were even a couple of new words that I haven’t encountered before in there (that doesn’t happen to me often). ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/13 "2007-06-01T18:14:22Z")
> [@](#): > > _You got 9 out of 10 correct on your first attempt and earned two pieces of the honeycomb._ Missed number 9. But I’m happy! ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/14 "2007-06-01T18:21:23Z")
10/10 on the first attempt. Now if you asked me to spell most of those words, I’d be hard pressed but the multiple choice made it fairly easy. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/15 "2007-06-01T18:28:06Z")
I got 7 out of 10 correct. If I didn’t see these words in print, however, I would have bombed for sure. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/16 "2007-06-01T18:29:53Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] Try this link. Quiz on the left. FWIW I got 9/10. I missed “autochthonous.” [/QUOTE] Same here. So, yes, were the spelling bee multiple choice - where the groups of answers were put together by people who didn’t know anything about root words, I’d totally win. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/17 "2007-06-01T18:37:09Z")
10/10, but only because it was multiple choice. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/18 "2007-06-01T18:47:10Z")
I’m a queen bee! Yay! ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/19 "2007-06-01T18:51:20Z")
Ditto – 10/10, but _only_ because it was M/C. Basically, knowing what the words meant allowed me to get the correct spelling by finding the relevant Latin or Germanic “root” or roots, and finding the one that “looked like a word” (in terms of roots and use of known prefixes and suffixes) ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/20 "2007-06-01T18:52:49Z")
Well that was kinda odd… “You got 8 out of 10 correct on your first attempt and earned two pieces of the honeycomb.” Yeah, except I got _nine_ out of ten correct. I only got one incorrect response. Very strange… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342.md?page=2)