Think you could hold your own among the 562 spellers at this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee?
Below is a list of the final five words that knocked out spellers last year before 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani, of McKinney, Texas, was crowned champion. Hear the word, how it’s used in a sentence and see its origin and definition.
Good luck playing along as the 2019 spelling bee finals conclude in National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.
Haven’t been totally demolished? Here are a handful more knockout words that have booted spelling competitors over the last decade, as provided by the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s office.