Meanings of Common Roots
Geographical Names
Vocabulary Word: Ebullient
Phrased and Hyphenated Words
Eponyms
Latin and Greek Plurals
Latin and Greek Roots
Homonyms
SpellPundit Students’ Winning Streak Continues: Summer 2018
SpellPundit students’ winning streak continues! As you may know, at the 2018 Scripps Nationals, four of the top five spellers were SpellPundit Students.
2018 Scripps Spelling Bee: Karthik Nemmani (1st place), Naysa Modi (2nd place), Jashun Paluru (3rd place) and Navneet Murali (5th place) all used SpellPundit study materials.
SpellPundit students continued to win major spelling competitions this summer.
South Asian Spelling Bee (SASB)
Another SpellPundit student, Sohum Sukhatankar, won the South Asian Spelling Bee in Edison, NJ and took home a cash prize of $3,000. Sohum extensively used SpellPundit resources to prepare for this competition.
Other SASB Regional Champions and 1st Runner-Ups (Maya Jadhav, Rishik Ghandhasri, Vayun Krishna, Christopher Serrao, Srivarun Hathwar, Rohan Raja, and Nitya Kathiravan) also used SpellPundit resources to prepare for this competition.
North South Foundation (NSF)
Most of the top 10 Spelling and Vocabulary Bee ranks were achieved by SpellPundit students.
NSF Senior Spelling Bee (SSB):
NSF Junior Spelling Bee (JSB):
NSF Intermediate Vocabulary Bee (IVB):
NSF Junior Vocabulary Bee (JVB):
North America Spelling Bee Champion Challenge (NASCC)
Most of the top spellers at the North America Spelling Champion Challenge were SpellPundit students! In both the East Coast (held in Towson, MA) and West Coast (held in Riverside, CA) competitions, both the winner and runner up were SpellPundit students. These spellers acknowledge that SpellPundit resources have been invaluable in preparing for the bees!
2018 NASCC Spelling Bee East Coast: Paul Hamrick (1st place), Ashrita Gandhari (2nd place)
2018 NASCC Spelling Bee West Coast: Cameron Keith (1st place), Aisha Randhawa (2nd place)
The NASCC champions received $2,000 prize money and an all-expenses-paid trip to Beijing, China!
Differences Between the Merriam-Webster Print and Online Dictionaries
In 2017, the Scripps National Spelling Bee transitioned from the print version of the Merriam-Webster Third New International dictionary (which is also the CD ROM version) to the online Unabridged dictionary (unabridged.merriam-webster.com).
This blog post will discuss the differences between these two versions of the dictionaries so you are familiar with the changes.
Pronunciation of Words
There are some slight differences in pronunciation between the two versions of the dictionary. Some examples are:
| Word | Print/CD Dictionary | Online Dictionary |
| mattock | mad.ǝk, -atǝk | ˈmatək, -atək |
| tare | ta(a)](ǝ)r, ‘te], ]ǝ | ˈter |
| flair | fla(a)](ǝ)r, ‘fle], ]ǝ | ˈfler |
| square | skwa(a)](ǝ)r, -we], ]ǝ | ˈskwer |
| aerolithology | a(ǝ)(͵)rōli’thälǝjē | ¦er-ə-li-¦thä-lə-jē |
| airbus | a(a)(ǝ)r͵bǝs | ˈer-ˌbəs |
| revert | rə̇’vǝr]t, rē’-, -vӛ], -vǝi], usu ]t+V | ri-ˈvərt |
| redress | rə̇’dres, rē’- | ri-ˈdres |
| steer | sti(ǝ)r, -iǝ | ˈstir |
| board | bō(ǝ)rd, -ȯ(ǝ)rd, -ōǝd, -ȯ(ǝ)d | ˈbȯrd |
| forth | fō(ǝ)rth, ‘fȯ(ǝ)rth, ‘fōǝth, ‘fȯ(ǝ)th | ˈfȯrth |
| coarse | kō(ǝ)rs, -ȯ(ǝ)rs, -ōǝs, -ȯ(ǝ)s | ˈkȯrs |
| panda | pandǝ, ‘paan- | ˈpan-də |
| forth | fō(ǝ)rth, ‘fȯ(ǝ)rth, ‘fōǝth, ‘fȯ(ǝ)th | ˈfȯrth |
| answer | an(t)sǝ(r), ‘aan-, ‘ain-, ‘ån- | ˈan(t)-sər |
Note: While the print dictionary has the diacritical symbol /d./, the online dictionary has replace this with /t/.
Some words have different alternative pronunciations between the two dictionaries. Here are some of these words:
| Word | Print/CD Dictionary | Online Dictionary |
| jacana | jakənə | jə-ˈkä-nə, ˌzhä-sə-ˈnäⁿ |
| chelator | kē͵lātǝ(r) | ˈkē-ˌlā-tər; kē-ˈlā-tər also chē- |
| sleazy | slēzē, -zi | ˈslē-zē also ˈslā- |
| archenteron | (‘)ärk.’entǝ͵rän | (ˈ)är-ˈken-tə-ˌrän, -rən |
| raptore | rap͵tō(ǝ)r | ˈrap-tər, -ˌtȯr |
| Aristotelian | ¦arə̇stǝ¦tēlyǝn, ¦a͵ris-, -lēǝn also ¦er- or ǝ¦ris- or a¦ris- | ¦a-rə-stə-¦tēl-yən |
| ctenophore | tenǝ͵fō(ǝ)r | ˈte-nə-ˌfȯr |
| om | ȯm | ˈōm, ˈȯm |
| flotsam | flätsǝm -lōt- | ˈflät-səm |
| luxe | lǝks | ˈlu̇ks, ˈləks, ˈlüks |
| leopoldville | ˈlē-ə-ˌpōld-ˌvil | ˈlē-ə-ˌpōld-ˌvil, ˈlā- |
| crevalle | krǝ’valē, -lǝ, -lā | kri-ˈva-lē |
| aminophylline | ǝ͵mēnō’fi͵lēn, |amǝ͵nō’-; ͵amǝ’näfǝ͵- | ˌa-mə-ˈnä-fə-lən |
| leipzig | līpsi]g, -sē] | ˈlīp-sig, -sik |
Spelling
Some words are spelled differently between both dictionaries, such as:
| Print/CD Dictionary | Online Dictionary |
| amizilia | amazilia |
| bogsha | bogshah |
| vilnyus | vilnius |
New Online Words
The online dictionary has a lot of new words that the print dictionary did not have. Scripps has asked a lot of these new online words in their bees, such as xylorimba, turducken, mizuna, and Beringia. In fact, a few of these new words were asked at the National Spelling Bee in 2017, such as arribada, clafouti, Bruneian, and bucatini.
SpellPundit is one of the only study resources that has completely incorporated all the spelling/pronunciation changes in the online dictionary. Our New Online Words Module has with over 4000 words for spellers to learn these words and test themselves.