This week, 281 spellers - 139 boys and 142 girls - are competing for the title of 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion. The players range in age from 8 to 15, but the most common age is 13, with 98 spellers. And 190, almost 68 percent, come from public schools rather than private or home schools.
In honor of the new group of whizzes taking the stage today, we take a look back at winning words from bees past. How many could you spell?
2013: knaidel - a traditional Jewish dumpling
2012: guetapens - ambush, snare or trap
2011: cymotrichous - having wavy hair
2010: stromuhr - a tool that measures the speed of blood flow through an artery
2009: Laodicean - lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics
2008: guerdon - something that one has earned or gained
2007: serrefine - a small forceps for clamping a blood vessel
2006: Ursprache - a hypothetical parent language
2005: appoggiatura - a melodic tone
2004: autochthonous - indigenous, native, aboriginal; used especially in nature
You can follow along with all 281 competitors here.
