12 Insanely Hard-To-Spell Words That Won Past Spelling Bees

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Scott Isaacs spelling bee

AP

The championship round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee - the Super Bowl of spelling - airs tonight on ESPN.

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While the point of the Bee is to spell the words, not define them, half of the fun for the viewer is to get a taste of some of the more arcane elements of language.

Who could forget 2013 champion Arvind Mahankali's winning word, "knaidel"?

The 13-year-old from Queens correctly spelled the German-derived word, meaning a kind of Jewish dumpling, stunning even himself.

We went back through the history of Spelling Bee winners to find the coolest words that won a kid a trophy.

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Ordered sequentially by year:

2009: Laodician (adj.) - lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics

Spelled by Kavya Shivashankar.

David Tidmarsh george w bush

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David Tidmarsh meets George W. Bush

2004: autochthonous (adj.) - formed or originating in the place where found, native

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Spelled by David Tidmarsh

2002: prospicience (noun) - the act of looking forward, foresight

Spelled by Pratyush Buddiga

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1999: logorrhea (adj.) - excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness

Spelled by Nupur Lala

1997: euonym (noun) - a name well suited to the person, place, or thing named

Spelled by Rebecca Sealfon

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1996: vivisepulture (noun) - the act or practice of burying alive

Spelled by Wendy Guey

1989: spoliator (noun) - One who plunders, pillages, despoils, or robs

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Spelled by Scott Isaacs

1980: elucubrate (verb)- to solve, write or compose by working studiously at night.

Spelled by Jacques Bailly

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1962: esquamulose (adj.) - Not covered in scales, or of scale like objects, a smooth skin

Spelled by Nettie Crawford and Michael Day

1961: smaragdine (adj.) Of or relating to emeralds, having the color of emeralds.

Spelled by John Capehart

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1959: eudaemonic (adj.) - producing happiness, based on the idea of happiness as the proper end of conduct

Spelled by Henry Feldman

1951: insouciant (adj.) - lighthearted unconcern, nonchalance

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Spelled by Irving Belz