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Tricks & Tipsfor Spelling Bee Success

2011

Spell It!

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Gl Iti

2 About This Booklet

W Lists Sllig Tis

3 Words rom Latin

6 Words rom Arabic

8 Words rom Asian Languages

9 Words rom French

12 Eponyms

13 Words rom German

15 Words rom Slavic Languages

16 Words rom Dutch

17 Words rom Old English

20 Words rom New World Languages

22 Words rom Japanese

23 Words rom Greek

26 Words rom Italian28 Words rom Spanish

30 Key to Exercises

2010 ChampionAnamika Veeramani

Copyright 2010by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

All rights reserved. No part o this book covered by

the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or copied

in any orm or by any meansgraphic, electronic,

or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, or

inormation storage and retrieval systemswithout

written permission o the publisher.

Made in the United States o America

CreditsText: Orin K. Hargraves

Editing: Carolyn B. AndrewsScripps National Spelling Bee

Mark A. StevensMerriam-Webster Inc.

Design: Lynn Stowe TombMerriam-Webster Inc.

Be sure to visitwww.myspellit.comor other activities,

a list oWords You Need to Know,

and links to defnitionsand pronunciations o

words on theSpell It! study lists.

20

111

TabLe of conTenTS

abouT The bee

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is an educational promotion

sponsored by The E.W. Scripps Company in conjunction with

sponsoring newspapers and organizations around the world.

Its purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase

their vocabulary, learn concepts, and develop correct English

usage that will help them all their lives.

The program takes place on two levels: local and national.

Sponsors organize spelling bee programs near their locales and

send their champions to the nals o the Scripps National Spelling

Bee near Washington, D.C. The national program is coordinated

by The E.W. Scripps Company corporate headquarters in

Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to planning and conducting the

national nals, the national oce annually publishes several word

publications utilized by students, educators, and sponsors.

The program is open to students attending public, private,

parochial, charter, and home schools. Participants must not

have reached their 15th birthday on or beore August 31, 2010,

and must not have passed beyond the eighth grade on or

beore February 1, 2011. A comprehensive set o eligibilityrequirements may be ound in the Rules or Local Spelling Bees

at www.spellingbee.com.

The National Spelling Bee was begun in 1925. Nine students

participated in the rst national nals. In 1941 Scripps Howard

acquired the rights to the program. There was no Scripps National

Spelling Bee during the World War II years o 1943, 1944, and

1945. O the 86 National Spelling Bee champions, 45 have been

girls and 41 have been boys. Co-champions were declared in

1950, 1957, and 1962. The 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee

will involve more than eleven million students at the local level.

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112

No language has been more inuential in the development oadvanced English vocabulary than Latin. There are tworeasons or this. First, when the French conquered

England in 1066, their language was very similar to Latin,and French remained Englands ofcial language or200 years. Second, Latin was the language o culture,religion, education, and science in the Western worldrom the Middle Ages until relatively recently. It is stillused today to name newly discovered species o plants andanimals and to orm some compound words in various scientifc and

technological felds.

(For footnotes, see Spelling Tips, pages 45.)

3

abouT ThIS bookLeT

W

inane

relevant

impetuous

ambivalent

dejected

postmortem

incriminate

access

plausible

interrupt 1

alliteration

reugee

amicable

lucid 2

percolatemeticulous

astidious

trajectory

animosity

implement

ambiguity

curriculum

omnivorous

bellicose

electoral

crescent 3

obsequious

transect

precipice

susceptible

condolences 4

beneactor

candidate

bugle

ormidable

canary

subteruge

abdicate

lunatic

carnivore 5

gregarious

ostentatious

prosaic6

herbivore

prodigal

magnanimous

benevolent

mercurial

simile

jovial

ridiculous

innate

obstinate

discern

mediocre

insidious

rupture

precipitate

erudite

colloquial

intractable

exuberant 7

ingenious

retrospective

ominous

vulnerable

omnipotent

consensus

disciplinealleviate

spectrum

prescription

capitulation

incredulous

anity

necessary

adjacent

dissect

conjecture

imperative

predicate

corporal

patina

Capricorn

participant

library

cognition

primal

lament

unity

ventilate

aquatic

igneous

reptile

providencemessage

oliate

nasal

opera

renovate

credentials

temporal

canine

measure

credible

study wordscontinued on

page 4

WordS from LaTIn

elcome to the 2011 edition oSpell It!, the Scripps NationalSpelling Bee study booklet or school spelling champions.This years study booklet ocuses on about 1150 words.

Almost all the words are divided into sections by languageo origin. (The booklet also contains one special section:

eponyms.) This division by language o origin will enable youto learn and remember several important rules, tips, and

guidelines or successully spelling words in Englishthe mostchallenging language o all or spellers!

The ocial dictionary o the Scripps National Spelling Bee is the 2002 edition oWebsters Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, published by Merriam-Webster. The etymological inormation in Websters Third is ar more detailed thanwhat you will nd in this booklet, whose categorization o words by language oorigin concentrates on the infuence o primarily one language.

Each section contains challenge words in addition to its basic study list. Thebasic study-list words and the challenge words are typical o the words that willbe used in most district- and regional-level spelling bees this year. In some highlycompetitive district and regional spelling bees, however, spellers remaining at the endo the contest will receive words that do not appear in this booklet. Some organizerso district and regional bees will even create their own competition word lists, whichmay contain none o the words you will nd here!

Although this booklets main purpose is to provide you with an ocial list ostudy words or 2011 district- and regional-level bees, each o its sections alsocontains at least one exercise. The exercises are intended to give you urtherinormation about words that come rom a particular language and help youbetter understand how the words behave in English. Some o the exercises are quitechallenging. Dont eel discouraged i you cant answer all o them! The solutionsto the exercises are printed on pages 3031.

We hope that youll nd this short booklet as enjoyable as it is educational and thatthe ascinating acts youll learn about the words discussed here will stay with youor many years to come!

Be sure to visit www.myspellit.com or other activities, a list o Words You Needto Know, and links to defnitions and pronunciations o words on theSpell It!study lists.

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115

emininity

condence

triumvirate

popularity

diary

humble

vivisection

strict

prosecute

contiguous

ductile

gradient

current

perdy

delity

incorruptible

chaLLenGe WordS

soliloquy

accommodate

pernicious8ecacy

visceral

exacerbate

indigenous

belligerent

vernacular

innitesimal

recalcitrant

innocuous

precocious

ameliorate

commensurate

acetious

prerogative

ubiquitous

egregious

aggregate

tertiary

corpuscle

perennial

4

5 The letter iis a vowel oten used to connect two Latin

word elements. I the connecting vowel sound is a schwa

(\\) and you must guess at the spelling o this sound,the letter imight be a good guess: See carnivore andherbivore. Other examples include nonstudy-list wordsthat end in iorm such as oviorm andpediorm.

6 The letter k rarely appears in words rom Latin, and itssound is nearly always represented by c as in canary, prosaic,canine, mediocre, Capricorn, cognition, ductile, incorruptible,

vernacular, innocuous, and many other words on the list.

7 The letterxoten gets the pronunciation \gz\ in words romLatin (as in exacerbate and exuberant).

8The combination ious ends many adjectives o Latin origin. When the consonantthat precedes ious is c or t, the sound o the nal syllable is \shs\ as inprecocious,acetious, ostentatious, andpernicious. It is important to keep in mind that severaladjectives rom Latin ending with this sound end in eous rather than ious. In suchinstances, the denitions o the words usually contain phrases such as consistingo, resembling, or having the characteristic o. Examples include nonstudy-list words herbaceous, cetaceous, and lilaceous.

WordS from LaTInWordS from LaTIn

SpeLLInG TIpS for WordS from LaTIn1 One o the hardest things to remember about words rom Latin is whether an

internal consonant (like rrin interrupt) is doubled. To reinorce your memory othe correct spelling, try to remember related words all together (like interruptalong with interruption or necessaryalong with necessity).

2 The \\ sound (as in ooze) is nearly always spelled with u in words rom Latin.It typically ollows a \d\, \j\, \l\, \r\, or \s \ sound. Ater other consonants, thissound normally becomes \y\ (as in bugle, subteruge, ambiguity, andprosecuteand in one pronunciation o reugee).

3 Beware o words like crescent in which the \s \ sound is spelled withsc in wordsrom Latin. Other examples include visceral, discern,discipline, susceptible, andcorpuscle.

4 A related tip: When you hear within a word rom Latin the \s\ sound ollowed byany o the sounds o e (long, short, or schwa), theres a possibility that the \s\ sound is spelled with c as in exacerbate, access, adjacent, condolences, acetious,and necessary.

noW You TrY!

1. Curriculum is another word rom Latin like necessaryand interrupt that has an

internal double consonant. Can you think o an adjective related to curriculumthat also has double r?

2. Some o the Latin study-list words end with the sound \shs\, and theconsonant that begins the last syllable is c or t (see tip 8, above). Can you thinko two words in English that end with this sound and are spelled withxious?

3. The rarely used plural o consensus is consensuses, but some words rom Latin

that end in us have a plural that ends in a long isound (\ \) and is spelled with i.Can you think o three such words?

4. Three words on the study list come rom the Latin verb that means throw.These words are conjecture, dejected, and trajectory. See i you can unscramble

these letters to nd our other common English words that have the same root:

jbustce trecje rptcjeo cotbej

5. The consonantsgn oten occur in words rom Latin. When theydivide two syllables o a word, both o them are pronounced.

Some words rom Latin, however, have the consonantsgn in a

single syllable. In this case, theg is silent as in design. Can youthink o three other words rom Latin in which this happens?

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11 WordS from french98

TisfromtheToMostothewordsonthispageromvariousAsianlanguageswereintroduced into English by people

who spoke English. Thereore, i youarentamiliarwithawordanddontknow

any rulesorspellingwordsrom its languageo

origin,asalastresortyoumighttryspellingittheway

aspeakeroEnglishwhoisanuntrainedspellerwould

spellit.Another approach that is sometimes use-

ul is to spell aborrowedwordorparto aborrowedwordinthewaythatanEnglishword you already know with similarsoundsisspelled.Thisapproachwouldwork or spelling mongoose,orexample.

gymkhana

basmati

gingham

mandir

bhalu

gourami

masala

raita

tanha

asana

batik

charpoy

durwan

mahout

prabhu

Buddha

topeng

lahar

jnana

Holi

noW You TrY!1. One sound is spelled with the same

double vowel in six o the words romAsian languages on this page. Whatsound is that, and how is it spelled?

2. The long e sound (\ \) is spelled ee in dungaree andrupee. Name three other ways it is spelled in the words above.

3. Why do you think bungalow is spelled with a w atthe end? (Hint: See the second paragraph underTips rom the Top, above.)

When English-speaking peoplemainly the Britishbegan to trade with the Indian subcontinent and theFar East, it was necessary to fnd words or many things

never beore encountered, whether oods, plants, animals,clothing, or events. Many words that were borrowed rom

Asian languages as a result o trade have become wellestablished in English, and the process continues today. It isdifcult to fnd reliable patterns to help you spell these wordsbecause they were borrowed at dierent times by dierentpeople.

dugong

guru

cushy

seersucker

jungle

oolong

nirvana

bangle

cummerbund

juggernaut

pangolin

mahatma

rupee

mongoose

shampoo

typhoon

bamboo

jackal

dungaree

bungalow

gunnysack

chutney

karma

jute

yamen

raj

kama

pundit

loot

kavya

jiva

pandit

chintz

patel

chaLLenGe WordS

WordS from aSIan LanGuaGeS

Beore the Modern English that we speak today was ullysettled, the French o the Middle Agesa direct oshooto Latinwas widely spoken in the British Isles as a

result o the conquest o Britain by France in 1066. Englishis so rich in vocabulary today partly because we otenhave words with similar or overlapping meanings, one owhich came via the Germanic route (that is, rom Anglo-Saxonor another Germanic language) and one via French. So, orexample, we may call the animal a hog (Old English), but the meatit produces ispork (rom French).

Today, words with French ancestry are everywhere in English.Our pronunciation o vowels and consonants is quite dierent rom the modern Frencho today, but there are many consistent spelling patterns that can help us make educatedguesses about how to spell words that come rom French.

peloton

barrage

chagrin 1

pacism

manicure

altruism

bureaucracy

mascot

parait

mystique

layette 2

boutique

dressage

croquet

gorgeous

denture

mirage

denim

cachet 3

neologism

beige

diplomat

moti

suave

oyer 4

clementine

ambulance

rehearse

leotard

prairie 5

diorama

entourage

uselage

boudoir

collage 6

amenable

expertise

matinee

plateau

sortie

croquette

physique 7

elite

deluxe

nougat

rouge 8

escargot

crochet

regime

doctrinaire

tutu

bevel

menu

egalitarian

quiche

atigue

garage

morgue

stethoscope

vogue

musicale

palette

famboyant

baton

souvenir

impasse

nesse

maladroit

TifromtheToFrench has many dierentvowel sounds and diphthongs

that are distinctly French, but ithas only the same 26 letters to spell

them with that English has. Thereore,French relies on certain combinations o

vowels and consonants in spelling to showwhat vowel sound is meant. When pro-nounced in English, many o thesesounds are simplifed. The resultis that many dierent EnglishspellingsstandorthesamesoundinFrenchwords.

(For footnotes, seeSpelling Tips, page 10.)

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1110 11

WordS from frenchWordS from french

chaLLenGe WordS

gauche

rapport

camoufage

genre

virgule

debacle

usillade

saboteur

renaissance

chauvinism

recidivist

chassis

dtente

raconteur

mayonnaise

surveillance

repertoire

dossier

taupe

poignant

garon

croissant

ecru

lieutenant

protg

mlange

blas

te

ingenue

rendezvous

noW You TrY!1. Read these two pronunciations o nonstudy-list

French words and then spell them. Youll discovertwo other ways that a long a sound (\ \ ) can bespelled at the end o a word rom French:

\ka-f\ \m-l\

2. The consonant w is rare in French. You get ten points orusing it in French SCRABBLE! Find the our words on thestudy list that have a \w\ sound and tell how this sound is

spelled in each word.

3. The word mirage has two common related words in English that come ultimatelyrom the Latin root mirari, a word that means wonder at. One o these Englishwords has three rs; the other has only one. Can you guess the words?

4. English has dozens o words rom French that end in ee. Some, like melee, have along a pronunciation (\ \ ). Others, like levee, have a long e (\ \). Can youthink o two other words rom French ending in ee that have the long asound and two that have the long e sound?

5. O the words on the study list, three could also have been listed on theEponyms page (page 12) because they are based on the name o a person orcharacter. Which three words are these?

allaroudthmdi

trr

Iyouregettingan

oddsenseodj

vulookingatsomeo

theseFrenchwords

,

yourenotmistaken!Someoth

emarepurely

Frenchthatis,the

yhaveno obviousrootsin

anotherlanguage. A

largenumber,howe

ver,have

rootsinLatin(sucha

sambulanceandren

aissance)and

Greek (such asdip

lomat, neologism, a

ndstethoscope).

LongbeoreFrance

wasanindependen

t countryitwaspa

rt

otheRomanEmpire

,anditslanguagew

as closetoLatin.T

he

RomanEmpirewas,

inturn,inuencedb

ythe civilization o

classicalGreecethat

precededit.With

sorich aheritage,

theFrenchdidnotha

vetotravelveryar

tofndaword

orjustabouteveryt

hing!Dioramaisas

pecialcase.

Iyouseeelementsi

nitthatremindyou

oGreek

words,youarecorre

ct;buttheFrenchac

tually

modeledthiswordo

nawordtheysaw

in

Englishpanorama

whichwas, in

turn,maderomGree

kroots!

SpeLLInG TIpS for WordS from french French nearly always spells the \sh\ sound with ch, and this spelling o the sound is

very common in words rom French. Chagrin, chauvinism, and crochet are examples.

A word rom French ending with a stressed \et\ is usually spelled with ette asin croquette and layette.

A long a sound (\\) at the end o a word rom French can be spelled a number oways. One o the more common ways is with et as in cachet, crochet, and croquet.

One way to spell long a at the end o a word rom French is with eras in dossierandin oyer. Most Americans, however, do not pronounce the ending o oyerwith a long a.

A long e sound (\\) at the end o a word rom French can be spelled with ie as inprairie

and sortie. (But see exercise 4 on page 11 or another spelling o the long e ending.)

Words ending with an \zh \ sound are common in French. This sound is spelled ageas in collage, mirage, dressage, garage, barrage, camouage, entourage, and uselage.

A \k \ sound at the end o a word rom French is oten spelled que as in mystique,boutique, andphysique.

The \ \ sound (as in rouge and many other words on the list)in words rom French is usually spelled with ou. Sometimes,however, it is spelled with u as in tutu and ecru.

When the \sh\ sound occurs at the end o a word rom French,there is nearly always a silent e that ollows it as in quiche and gauche.

Words ending with an \d\ sound are common in French.This sound is spelled ade as in usillade.

French speakers have a number o vowels that English speakers modiy in pronunciation.Our way o pronouncing the French aise (pronounced \ez\ in French) is usually \z\.

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111312

WordS from GermaneponYmS

English and German are in the same language amily,and because o that you might expect that they wouldlook more like each other than they do! While many

words o German origin in English have some telltale signs,others have been anglicized (made to look and sound moreEnglish). Thereore, you might not know at frst glancewhere they came rom.

There are two main reasons why older borrowings romGerman tend to look less German and more English. First, Englishpatterns have had more opportunity to inuence older Germanic

words, both because theyve had more time to do so and because spelling wasnt stan-dardized until well ater these words entered English. Second, the German language hasitsel evolved since English borrowed these words, so the spelling patterns characteristico modern German didnt necessarily govern the spelling o older German words.

schadenreude 6

dreidel

weimaraner

ersatz

rulein

blitzkrieg7gesundheit

peernuss

edelweiss 8

glockenspiel

rottweiler

schottische

anschluss

wedel

springerle

zeitgeber

pickelhaube

schnecke

Weissnichtwo

praline

magnolia

boysenberry

hosta

poinsettia

macadamia

salmonella

newton

saxophone

tortoni

greengage

angstrom

gardenia

melba

tantalize

zinnia

quisling

begonia

samaritan

Panglossian

quixote

jeremiad

hector

Geronimo

shrapnel

vulcanize

Frankenstein

Boswell

ampere

cupid

Fletcherism

yahoo

diesel

bandersnatch

Crusoe

mentor

Dracula

Eponyms are words based on a persons or characters name.Sometimes the persons name and the word are exactly thesame and the word simply takes on a new meaning. In

other cases the persons name is slightly changed. When thishappens, the stressed syllable o the new word can also

change and you wont always recognize the origin, whichmight be a somewhat amiliar name. Take, or example,

gardenia. Its really just a mans name (Alexander Garden) withthe plant-naming sufx -ia. In act, all o the words on this listthat end with ia are names or plants and are based on the last

names o botanists.

orsythia

madeleine

bromeliad

mercerize

Fahrenheit

narcissistic

dahlia

Baedeker

philippic

guillotine

Bobadil

mesmerize

gnathonic

pasteurize

Croesus

braggadocio

noW You TrY!1. Six o the eponyms listed above are inspired by characters rom Greek or Roman

mythology. Which six eponyms are they?

2. I you discovered a new plant and you could use your rst or last name to givea name to the plant, what would you call it? How would you pronounce it?

angst 1

pretzel

waltz

haversack

nosh

sauerbraten

hinterland

verboten

liverwurst

streusel

umlaut

wanderlust

eiderdown

schnauzer

lederhosen

kohlrabi

sitzmark

langlau

autobahn

Backstein

inselberg

gestalt

einkorn

kitsch 2

gestapo

schloss

rucksack

echt

bratwurst

knapsack

eldspar

poltergeist

noodle

spareribs

Meistersinger 3

pumpernickel

Bildungsroman

strudel

bagel

hamster

cobalt

nachtmusik

vorlage 4

graupel

Wagnerian

cringle

e

glitz

homburg

kuchen

pitchblende

spritz 5

prattle

zwinger

spitz

realschule

panzer

stollen

dachshund

seltzer

Be sure to visit www.myspellit.com or other activities, a list o Words You Need toKnow, and links to defnitions and pronunciations o words on theSpell It! study lists.

chaLLenGe WordS

(For footnotes, seeSpelling Tips, page 14.)

chaLLenGe WordS

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111514

noW You TrY!1. A surprising number o words in English or dog breeds come rom

German. On our list there are ve: rottweiler, schnauzer,weimaraner, spitz,and dachshund. See i you can ll in the blanks in the ollowing words to correctlyspell some other dog breeds rom German:

dr _ ht _ a _ r p _ _ _ le aenp _ _ sch _ _ Do _ _ _ m _ n

2. The elspelling at the end o words such asstreusel, pretzel, and dreidelis typicalo German words that end with this sound. The le spelling o this sound in noodle,cringle, andprattle, on the other hand, is more typical o English. Whatgeneralization can be made about the dierences in these spellings?

3. The vowel combination au is usually pronounced the same way in English wordsrom German as it is in German words. Looking at umlaut, sauerbraten, autobahn,

schnauzer, langlau, graupel, andpickelhaube, which word would you say has beenmore anglicized in its usual pronunciation? Why do you think this is?

SpeLLInG TIpS for WordS from German 1 Dont shy away rom consonant clusters! German words

oten have combinations o three or more consonants thatdont occur in thoroughly English words. Examples include ngst in angst, sch inschadenreude,schn inschnauzer,

and nschlin anschluss.

2 A \k\ sound in a word rom German is usually spelled withk at the beginning o a word or syllable (as in kitsch andeinkorn) and oten with ck at the end o a word or syllable(as in knapsack andglockenspiel).

3 A long isound (\ \ ) usually has the spelling eiin words rom German, as in rulein,Meistersinger, zeitgeber, and several other words on the list.

4 The \f \ sound, especially at the beginning o a word, is sometimes spelled withvin German words as in vorlage. Other examples include the nonstudy-listwords herrenvolk and volkslied.

5 The letterz is ar more common in German than in English. Note that its pronuncia-tion is not usually the same as English \z \. When it ollows a t, which is common, thepronunciation is \s\ as inspritz, pretzel, blitzkrieg, and several other words on the list.

6 The \sh\ sound in words o German origin is usually spelledsch asinschadenreude,whether at the beginning or end o a word or syllable. Inschottische, you get it inboth places!

7 A long e sound (\\) usually has the spelling ie in words rom German,as in blitzkrieg andglockenspiel.

8 The letter w is properly pronounced as \v\ in German, as you hear in onepronunciation o edelweiss and in wedeland Weissnichtwo. Many Germanwords, however, have become so anglicized that this pronunciation has

vanished. Most Americans, or example, say bratwurst, not bratvurst.

WordS from German WordS from SLavIc LanGuaGeS

Many people in Eastern Europe and Asia speak a Slaviclanguage such as Czech, Ukrainian, Croatian, orBulgarian. And thats completely apart rom Russian,

a Slavic language spoken by more than 200 million people!Some words o Slavic origin that have made their way intoEnglish traveled through another language frst, reectingthe act that contacts between English-speaking and Slavic-speaking cultures have not always been direct.

TifromtheToThe sound itoutstrategyworkswellwithmostwordsoSlavicorigin.AlthoughsomeSlavic

languages use the Roman alphabetandsome,likeRussianandBulgarian,use

theCyrillicalphabet,ourspellingsomosto

thesewordsare airly English-riendly. Take

note:Therequentschwa\\attheendo

wordsisusuallyspelledwitha,andthe\k\soundisnearlyalwaysspelledwithk.

balalaika

kielbasatchotchke

barukhzy

perestroika

apparatchik

commissar

tokamakpogrom

taiga

Beetewk

noW You TrY!1. The sux -nik as insputnik comes originally rom

Slavic languages to denote a person o a certain type. Can youthink o any other words in English (most o them inormal) that use this sux?

2. Look up these our study-list words in a dictionary and study the etymologies.Which is the odd one out, and why?

nebbish kishke cravat knish

gulag

parkaSlav

robot

samovar

kremlin

troika

slave

mammoth

Siberian

tundra

Permian

kishke

glasnostpaprika

sable

kasha

nebbish

polka

Bolshevik

vampire

sputnik

knish

cravat

babushka

SovietBorzoi

gopak

cheka

sevruga

trepak

babka

purga

babacossack

nelma

kovsh

lokshen

eldsher

barabara

aul

chaLLenGe WordS

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mistletoe

salve

kirtle

Wiccan

shrieval

chary

20

111716

WordS from duTch

ike German, Dutch is a member o the same languageamily as English: the Germanic amily. Many o theoriginal European settlers in North America came rom

the country that later became the Netherlands, and thoseearly settlers were one o the sources o Dutch words inAmerican English today.

noW You TrY!1. All o the ollowing nonstudy-list words are part translations rom another language.

Can you guess the original language o each? Use a dictionary i you cant guess!

cranberry grosbeak alpenglow smearcase

mynheer

waterzooi

fense

muishond

witloo

springbok

maelstrom

bobbejaan

keeshond

voortrekker

uitlander

hollandaise

galjoen

schipperke

apartheid

hartebeest

keest

wainscot

roodebok

Old English was the language spoken in Britain beore theFrench arrived in 1066. I you could listen toa conversation in Old English, you would

probably be scratching your head a lot. A ew othe words would make sense, but most o themwouldnt. Like plants and animals, languagesevolvekeeping the things that they fnd useul,discarding others, and picking up new things alongthe way. This study list represents some o the realsuccess stories in English: words coined long ago that have notlost their useulness over dozens o generations!

quell 1

barrow

dearth

bower

paddock

blithe

keen

mongrel

reckless

alderman

whirlpool

belay 2

cleanser

dreary 3

bequeath

sallow

4

dross

lithe

gristle

earwig

ckle

nestle 5

ennel

nostril

abide

behest

slaughter 6

gospel

urlong

linseed

nether

athom

nightingale

arthing

threshold

kithwanton

loam 7

yield

mattock

hawthorn

tithe

behoove

orlorn

quiver

hustings

aspen

mermaid

anvil

barley

linden

hassock

orchard

hearth 8

watery

endgoatee

earthenware

windily

dealership

bookkeeping

ery

learned

nosiest

creepy

errand

daily

gnat

broadlea

stringy

dairy

workmanship

newangled

timely

dogged

mootable

womanly

manhandle

olksiness

worrisome

roughhewn

knavery

hurdle

kipper

hundredth

icicle

pinaore

yieldable

hue

TipfromtheTop

Youhave a great

advan-

tageinlearningtosp

ellaword

thathasbeeninEn

glishforavery

longtime.Chances

arethattheword

belongsto a group

ofwordsthatsho

w

thesamespelling

pattern,sinceword

sin

alllanguageshave

ahabitofconformi

ng

to each other over

time.Asyoustudy

thewordsonthelis

t,trytoremem-

berthemtogetherw

ithanother

wordorwordswith

asimilar

soundandspelling.

WordS from oLd enGLISh

TrueinpartBuckwheat is an exampleo a part translation.Whena word that has two parts (like

English

rowboat)travelsromanotherlanguage to English, we sometimestranslate one part and keep the sound otheotherpartwithouttranslatingit.TheoriginalDutchorbuckwheatisboek-weit. When this word came intoEnglish,wekept thesoundoboek and translated weit(wheat).

(For footnotes, see SpellingTips, pages 1819.)

L

chaLLenGe WordS

cockatoo

keelhaul

harpoon

urlough

bowery

easel

holster

reebooter

wafe

trawl

uproar

beleaguer

cruller

yacht

wiseacre

brackish

decoy

caboose

buckwheat

walrus

howitzer

crimp

blu

stipple

foss

cruiser

hustle

klompen

polder

bundle

catkin

splice

Flemish

grabble

huckster

rolic

ravel

tattle

scum

trek

scrabble

clapboard

gru

isinglass

excise

blister

rabbit

package

muddle

handsome

oist

staple

gulden

mart

screen

guilder

etch

Netherlander

dune

croon

ticket

buckwagon

hock

boodle

guy

daodil

loiter

potash

scow

wintergreen

trigger

stripe

bruin

skipper

waywiser

spoor

mizzle

school

pickle

snu

chaLLenGe WordS

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1918

20

11WordS from oLd enGLISh WordS from oLd enGLIShp pss:

Ws fl It T!Have you ever noticed that when someone

joins a group, he or she oten does whateverpossible to blend in? Believe it or not, words oten

do the same thing! The best way or a new word tosurvive in a language is to look or sound like other words.

Beore long, the new word is accepted as a native.For example, our list has three words that (a) have two

syllables, (b) have a double consonant, and (c) end with ock:paddock, mattock, and hassock. The ock part o these words is

an Old English sufx used to orm diminutives (smaller ver-sions o something). Now, look at these nonstudy-list

English words: cassock, haddock,and hammock. I youguessed that they all came rom Old English using

the same sufx, you would be wrong! All thesewords came into English later and some came

rom other languages, but it was easy andconvenient to spell them according to

a amiliar pattern.

SpeLLInG TIpS for WordS from oLd enGLISh1 Old English likes double consonants ollowing short vowels, especially i the vowelis in a stressed syllable. Examples include quell, paddock, mattock, sallow, ennel,hassock, errand, barrow, kipper, and Wiccan.

2 A long a sound (\ \) at the end o words rom Old English is nearly always spelled

ayas in belay.3 Long e (\ \) at the end o an adjective or adverb rom Old English is nearly always

spelled withy. Examples include dreary, watery, windily, fery, creepy, daily, stringy,timely,womanly, and chary.

4 Long o (\ \) at the end o words rom Old English is typically spelled with ow as insallow and barrow. By contrast, a long o at the end o a word in many languagesthat English has borrowed rom is simply spelled with o.

5 When the syllable \sl\ ends words rom Old English, it is nearly always spelledstle,with the t being silent (as ingristle and nestle).

6 Silentgh ater a vowel is common in words rom Old English, as inslaughter. Silentgh usually appears ater iin words likeplight (not on the study list) and nightingale,and it signals that the vowel is pronounced\ \.

7 The vowel combination oa in words rom Old English is nearly always pronounced aslong o (\ \) as in loam and goatee. Examples not on the study list includeshoal,boastul, and gloaming.

noW You TrY!Nows your chance to fll up some o the empty spots in your

memory with a ew nonstudy-list words in English that look likesome words on the study list. Well give you a pattern and then some clues to see iyou can think o other words in English that are spelled according to the same pattern.

pattern:double consonant ollowed byock example: paddock

clue:a small hill answer: _______________________

A.pattern:double consonant ollowed by ow example: harrow

1. clue:a pointed weapon answer: _______________________

2. clue:the flling o bones answer: _______________________

3. clue:asmall songbird answer: _______________________

4. challenge clue:a wild plant with yellow answer:_______________________or white owers

B.pattern:consonant sound ollowed byallow example: sallow

5. clue:not deep answer: _______________________

6. clue:thick at rom cattle answer: _______________________

7. challenge clue:a plant with showy owers answer: _______________________8. challenge clue:(o a feld) not cultivated answer: _______________________

C.pattern:ending \\ spelled asthe example: lithe

9. clue:eel strong dislike or answer: _______________________

10. clue:churn or oam as i boiling answer: _______________________

11. challenge clue:twist as a result o pain answer: _______________________

12. challenge clue:a cutting tool with a answer: _______________________curved blade

D.pattern:ending\sl\spelled asstle example: nestle

13. clue:a sti hair answer: _______________________

14. clue:a common weed with prickly leaves answer: _______________________

15. challenge clue:a rame that supports answer: _______________________

16. challenge clue:a ormal word or a letter answer: _______________________

8 Silent e on the end or not? For words rom Old Englishthat end in either hard th (\th\) or sot th (\\ ),remember this: More oten than not, sot th willhave a silent e at the end o the word. Consider,or example, bequeath, dearth, kith,hearth,andhundredth versus blithe,tithe, and lithe. Interestingly,the word blithe can be pronounced both ways.

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The people o the tribes and nations who lived in theNew World beore the arrival o European explorers were likepeople everywhere: They had a name or everything! Oten,the language o the newly arrived people simply absorbedthe native term, imposing changes on it that would make it

ft in better with the newcomers language. Some o theseterms jumped directly to English rom a native language.

Others traveled through some other language along the way.Though Hawaiian isnt a true New World language, it is includedhere because Hawaii is now a part o the United States.

TisfromtheToAll o the source languages o

wordsinthisstudylistareunrelatedtoEnglish,andmanyothemareunre-

lated toeachother.Forexample,cashewis romthenativeSouthAmerican language

Tupi, which has no connectionwith Hawaiian,

the sourceokahuna, orAlgonquian,whichgives

uscaribou.Manyothesewordsareromlanguagesthathad

noalphabetatthetimeoborrowingorthathad

theirownuniquewritingsystem.Theresult is

thatintroductionintoEnglish,whetherdirectorindirect,involvedsomecompromiseinpronunciationandspellingwhicho-tenreectstherulesoEnglishorsomeintermediarylanguage.

WordS from neW WorLd LanGuaGeS

opossum

terrapin

ocelot

hoomalimali

coati

jacamar

ipecac

menhaden

sachem

condor

iguana

hurricane 1

kahuna

hogan

jerky

muskrat

hominy

wigwam

pampas

caribou 2

toboggan

persimmon

quinine

powwow

bayou

coyote 3

tamale

poi

cashew

luau

totem

mole

hickory

cacao

kona

malihini

wikiwiki

Tuckahoe

pecan

chipotle

skunk

woodchuck 4

chocolate

muumuu

puma

tomato

maraca

petunia

jaguar

buccaneer

llama

succotash

caucus

wampum

mahimahi

toucan

SpeLLInG TIpS for WordSfrom neW WorLd LanGuaGeS1 Remember that words settling down in English are oten

spelled according to English word patterns. I yourecompletely unsure o how to spell a word rom a NewWorld language, you can try just sounding it out.This strategy would work or hurricane, muskrat,wigwam, and several other words on the list.

2 Take note o the language(s) a word may have traveled throughon its way to English, or the path to English oten gives a clue about spelling.

For example, i it had been up to an English speaker, the \ \ sound at the end ocaribou would probably have been spelled oo; but the infuence o French givesus the current spelling because French usually spells this sound ou.

3Coyote shows evidence o having passed through Spanish on its way to English:The voiced nal e is oten seen in Spanish words. Two other examples on this listare tamale and mole.

4 Remember what olk etymologyis? Words that entered Englishrom New World languageswere prime candidates orthis process. I parts o anative word sounded amiliar,they were oten spelled bythe settlers in a amiliarway, as in woodchuck.Muskrat is alsoprobably a resulto olk etymology.

noW You TrY!1. The two words on the

study list that suggest olketymology denote animals.Which o the ollowingnonstudy-list words or plantswould you think have olketymologies?

pennyroyal campanula

chickling brooklime poppy

2. Cashew, persimmon, hickory, cacao, and pecan are all New World trees andhave names rom New World languages. Based on your knowledge o typicallyEnglish words, which o the ollowing tree names do you think are romNew World languages?

oak ash catalpa beech elm maple guava pine

WordS from neW WorLd LanGuaGeS

Itflsnic

toSyItTwic

Didyoueverloseaf

ip-fopatawingdin

g

whereallthebigwig

swereeatingcousc

ous?

Well,maybenot.Bu

titwouldbeunto

saythat

youdid!Allhumanl

anguageshaveaea

turecalled

reduplication.Itap

pliestowordsthat

ftanyothree

patterns:(a)bothsy

llablesareidentical(

asincouscous),(b)

thesecondsyllabler

hymeswiththefrs

t(asinwingdinga

nd

bigwig),and(c)thesecond

syllablehasadier

entvowelbutthe

sameconsonantsasthefrst(asinf

ip-fop).Thereason

thatall

languageshaveredu

plicativewordsisthatpeoplelike

them!

Theyreuntosaya

ndeasytoremembe

r.Thisstudylist

hasourreduplicatio

ns:powwow,mahim

ahi,wikiwiki,

andmuumuu.Suchwordsareusuall

yeasytospell.

Ithesyllables are

identical,they are

spelled

identically.Ithey d

ier onlybythevo

wel

soundsoronlybyth

econsonantsounds

,

thenonlythatparto

thewordchang-

esromonesyllable

tothenext.chaLLenGe WordS

20

11

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SpeLLInG TIpS for WordS from Greek1 In a ew words rom Greek, e appears at the end o a word and has long e sound

\ \: Some examples are acme, apostrophe, and hyperbole.

2 A \k\ sound in English oten represents a sound rom Greek that we dont actuallyuse, and the most common spelling o this sound in English is ch: See anachronism,arachnid, character, chronic, chronology, dichotomy, gynarchy, hierarchy, matriarch,melancholy, notochord, patriarch,synchronous, and tachometer.

3 The most requent sound thatygets in words rom Greek is short i(\i \) as inacronym, calypso, cryptic, cynical, dyslexia, eponym, homonym, myriad, Olympian,

polymer, symbiosis, synchronous, synergy, synonym, synopsis, andsyntax.

4 A long isound (\ \) in a word that comes rom Greek is sometimes representedbyy, especially ater h, as in hydraulic, hydrology, hygiene, hyperbole, hyphen,

hypothesis, cynosure, dynamic, gynarchy, pyre, andxylophone.5 In ancient Greek, the letterphi(pronounced \f\) represented a breathy or

aspirated version o the sound that is represented in English by . Speakers oRoman-alphabet languages did not have this sound or a corresponding letter, so theysubstituted the \f\ sound but memorialized the original sound ophiby usingph tospell it. As a result, the English \f\ sound almost always appears asph in words oGreek origin. Consider, or example: amphibious, apostrophe, cacophony, diphthong,epiphany, euphemism, hyphen, metamorphosis, metaphor, periphery, phenomenon,

philanthropy, philately, philhellenism, spherical, topography, xylophone, andzephyr.Hundreds o words in English derived rom Greek show this spelling.

6 The letter o is the vowel most oten used to connect two Greek word elements.I the connecting vowel sound is a schwa ( \\) as inxylophone, notochord,androcentric, orthodox, ergonomic, geoponics, and asthmogenic, and you mustguess at the spelling o this sound, the letter o is a very good guess. The nonstudy-list words hypnotist, geometric, and electrolyte are among the many, manywords made o Greek word elements connected by o.

chaLLenGe WordS

dichotomy

misogynist

hypocrisy

diphthong

mnemonic

anomalyzephyr

hippopotamus

euphemism

anachronism

metamorphosis

hyperbole

arachnid

paradigmEocene

gynarchy

pneumatic

Hemerocallis

cynosure

philhellenism

euthanasia

philatelycacophony

WordS from Greek WordS from Greek

Be sure to visit www.myspellit.com or other activities, a listo Words You Need to Know, and links to defnitions andpronunciations o words on theSpell It! study lists.

noW You TrY!Here are a ew more Greekwords with their pronunciationsand denitions. Ater each denitionis an explanation o what a part othe word means. See i you can thinko other words in English that containthe same Greek word part, spelled in thesame way.

1. analysis\-na-l-ss\ n separation o something into its parts. The lysis parto this word means loosening or breaking up in Greek.

2. android \an-drid\ n a robot that looks like a human. The andrpart o thisword comes rom the Greek word that means man.

3. diatribe\d--trb\ n bitter or abusive writing or speech. The dia part o thisword means through, across, or apart in Greek words.

4. isobar \-s-br\ n a line on a map connecting places that have the samebarometric reading. The iso part o this word means equal in Greek words.

5. pentathlon \pen-tath-ln\ n an athletic competition consisting o ve events.Thepent/penta part o this word comes rom the Greek word that means ve.

6. polygon \p-l-gn\ n a drawn gure that encloses a space and has straightsides. Thegon part o this word means angle in words rom Greek.

7. thermal \thr-ml\ adj related to, caused by, or involving heat. The therm parto this word appears in other words rom Greek involving heat.

7 The \ j\ sound is always spelled withg in words romGreek. Why? When the \ j\ sound appears in words oGreek origin, it does so as an anglicized pronunciationo a root originally pronounced with a hardg. Note thatno jappears in any o the words on this list!

8 A schwa in words rom Greek is occasionally spelledwithy: See analysis, etymology, misogynist, odyssey,andzephyr.

exampLe

apathy \a-p-th\n lack of feeling. The

path part of this wordcomes from the Greek wordfor feeling. Some other

words you might think ofare: empathy, pathol-ogy, sympathy, and

telepathy.

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English vocabulary owes Italian a big debt in twocategories that provide a lot o enjoyment or manypeople: music and ood. During the 17th century, when the

idea o giving some instructions to per ormers o musical scoresfrst started catching on, many o the important composers wereItalianand it was natural or them to use their own language.The result is that the standard terms or musical expressiontoday are Italian. Many Italian ood terms made their way intoAmerican English particularly as a result o 19th-centuryimmigration. We might have adopted them anyway, though,

or many people love Italian ood!

scherzo 6

adagio

segue

zucchini 7

capricious

archipelago

charlatan

maraschino

paparazzo 8

antoccini

mozzarella

garibaldi

ocarina

prosciutto

trattoria

vivace

cappelletti

pizzicato

intaglio

WordS from ITaLIanWordS from ITaLIan

chaLLenGe WordS

staccato

ballot

conetti 1

semolina

infuenza

cavalry

piazza

cadenza

pistachio

spinet

cantata

incognito 2

vendetta

contraband

mascaragrati

credenza

parapet

alsetto

ditto

provolone 3

extravaganza

scampi

belladonna

gondola

rotunda

caulifower

galleria

regatta

crescendo 4

balcony

portolio

antipastolibretto

virtuoso

harmonica

maestro

bravura

resco

stucco 5

inerno

ballerina

malaria

grotto

harpsichord

allegro

virtuosa

spaghetti

piccolo

ravioli

vibratopesto

aria

bambino

salami

Parmesan

oratorio

nale

scenario

contrapuntal

illuminati

concerto

macaroni

palmetto

bandit

asco

cameo

sonata

coloratura

SpeLLInG TIpS for WordS from ITaLIan1 Long e (\\ ) at the end o a word rom Italian is usually

spelled with ias in conetti, grafti,zucchini, antoccini,cappelletti, and many other words on the list . In Italian,a nal iusually indicates a plural orm. This is notalways true, however, o Italian words in English.

2 Long o (\ \) at the end o an Italian word is spelled witho as in incognito, vibrato, stucco, virtuoso, concerto,

prosciutto, pizzicato, and many other words on the list.

3 A long e sound (\\ ) at the end o a word rom Italian can be

spelled with e as inprovolone, fnale, and one pronunciationo vivace, although this spelling o the sound is less common than i(see tip 1).

4 The \sh\ sound has various spellings in words rom Italian; a spelling it usuallydoesnt have issh! It can be spelledsc as in crescendo and prosciutto or ch as incharlatan andpistachio. The spelling o the \sh\ sound in capricious is also seen inwords that come rom Latinthe ancestral language o Italian.

5 The \k \ sound can be spelled cc when it comes beore long o(\ \) as instuccoor when it comes beore \\ as instaccato.

6 Another Italian spelling o \k \ is ch as inscherzo.

7 The sound \-n\, common at the end o Italian words(it orms diminutives), is usually spelled ini(as in

zucchiniand antoccini).

8 The double consonantzz is typically pronounced \ts\in words rom Italian as inpaparazzo, mozzarella,

pizzicato, and one pronunciation opiazza.

noW You TrY!Ocially, Italian uses only 21 o the 26 letters in the Roman alphabet. The lettersit doesnt use (j, k, w, x, andy) do appear in Italian books and newspapersbutusually only to spell oreign words. Young Italians think its cool to use these oreignletters, so they may eventually be accepted into the language. But or now, ocialItalian nds other ways to spell the sounds we normally associate with these letters.In light o that inormation, see i you can answer these puzzlers!

1. One word on the list o Challenge Words has a \w\ sound. How is it spelled?

2. One o the sounds we normally associate withjappears in one pronunciation oa word on the Challenge Words list. What is the word, and what letter is used tospell the sound?

3. The Italian word rom which we get cavalryis cavalleria. The Italian word romwhich we get balconyis balcone. Why do you think these words ended up withayon the end in English?

4. Il Messico is the Italian name o a country. What country do you think it is?

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WordS from SpanISh

England and Spain had some opportunities or wordexchanges through war and trade. The real crossroads orSpanish and English, however, has been North America,

starting as early as the 15th century when Spanish explorersfrst came to the New World. This crossroads is as busy

today as ever, or Spanish is the secondmost-requentlyspoken language in the United States. Because o the long

border we share with Mexico and the large number oAmericans whose origins go back eventually to Mexico,

American English has many words that come directly rom

Mexican Spanish.

TifromtheTo

Thegoodnewsaboutwordsrom Spanish is that they areotenspelledthewaytheysound.There is no need to throw in anysilent letters inmost cases!Besuretohavealook,though,atthespellingtipsonthisandthenextpage.SpeLLInG TIpS for WordS

from SpanISh1 A long o sound (\ \) at the end o a word is oten a mark o Spanish origin, and

it is nearly always spelled simply with o as in embargo and many other words onthis list.

A long e sound (\\) at the end o a word o Spanish origin is usually spelled withias in mariachi.

noW You TrY!1. One o the two words beginning withjon our study list also begins with a \j \

sound, but the letterjdoes not always have this sound in words rom Spanish.What is the initial consonant sound in these our nonstudy-list words, whichalso come rom Spanish?

jalapeo jipijapa jinete jojoba

2. Why do you think English uses either c or qu but not k to spell the \k\ sound inwords o Spanish origin?

3. You can see rom the words on the list that ch is common in words rom Spanishand that it usually has the same pronunciation as English normally uses or ch. Inwhich word rom the list does ch sometimes have a dierent pronunciation?

4. We have seen already that c oten represents a \k\ sound in words rom Spanish.In which three words on the list does c have a dierent pronunciation, and whatsound does it have?

5. The two ls in alligatorare not the usual llthat you oten see in the middle owords rom Spanish. When this word was borrowed, the Spanish masculinedenite article el(the) was borrowed along with it. El lagarto in Spanishbecame alligatorin English. Do you remember in what other language thedenite article is oten borrowed along with the word when it enters English?

WordS from SpanISh

The \k \ sound is sometimes spelled with qu in words oSpanish origin. This is especially true when the vowel soundthat ollows is long a (\ \), long e (\ \), or short i(\i \).Quesadilla and conquistador(in its pronunciations bothwith and without the \w\ sound) are examples rom our list.

It is much more common or the \k\ sound to be spelledwith c in words o Spanish origin. This is almost invariablewhen the vowel sound that ollows is a schwa (\\) as incanasta and embarcadero; short a (\a\) as in castanets andcaballero; or long o (\\ ) as in amenco andjunco.

A schwa at the end o a word rom Spanish is very common and is usuallyspelled with a as in mesa,bonanza, and several other words on the list.

The combination llin Spanish words is traditionally treated as a singleletter and is pronounced as consonant \y\ in American Spanish. Whensuch words enter English, sometimes that sound persists. At other times it ispronounced just like llwould be in an English word: that is, as \l \. Some wordssuch as mantilla, tomatillo, amarillo, and caballeroeven have two pronunciationsin English. Quesadilla, tortilla, and novillero always have the \y \ pronunciation inEnglish; chinchilla, otilla, vanilla, peccadillo, cedilla, andsarsaparilla always havethe \l \ pronunciation. Be on the lookout!

Note that, except or ll, double consonants in words rom Spanish are not verycommon. Bualo andpeccadillo represent exceptions. In Spanish, bualo has onlyone andpeccadillo has only one c. English spelling rules preer two consonants asa signal that the previous vowel is short, as is the case in these words.

burrito

embargo 1

chimichanga

gazpacho

mariachi 2

sombrero

alligator

canasta

bonanza

chinchilla

machismo

enchilada

pueblo

hacienda

andango

quesadilla 3

fotilla

tornado

famenco 4

vigilante

adios

cabana

gordita

peccadillo

libuster

tortilla

vanilla

cilantro

esta

anchovy

mesa 5

ramada

junco

caeteria

bongo

castanets

mantilla 6

oregano

lariat

chalupa

bualo 7

renegade

langosta

alamo

barrio

cedilla

Argentine

bolivar

amarillo

cordovan

desperado

empanada

tomatillo

diablo

pochismo

sierra

olio

bolero

junta

duenna

sassaras

punctilio

sarsaparilla

comandante

embarcadero

rejoneador

novillero

picaresque

conquistador

rasgado

vaquero

caballero

chaLLenGe WordS

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113130

keY To exercISeS

Words from Latin pages 351. The adjective is curricular.

2. English words rom Latin ending inxious include anxious, noxious, andobnoxious.

3. There are several such plurals inEnglish. The most common ones areprobably alumnus/alumni, nucleus/nuclei,cactus/cacti, and ungus/ungi.

4. The words aresubject, reject, project,and object.

5. Some other words with a silent ginclude assign, benign, impugn,and reign.

Words from Arabic pages 671. The letterxrepresents two consonant

sounds: \ks\.

2. The \k\ sound is spelled with k (asin alkali), c (as in carmine), q (as inQatari), que (as in mosque), ch (as inalchemy), and kh (as in mukhtar).

Words from Asian Languages page 81. The sound is \\ and is spelled with

oo in oolong, mongoose, shampoo,typhoon, loot, and bamboo.

2. Long e (\\) is spelled withy(in cushyandgunnysack), ey(in chutney), andi(in basmati, batik, gourami, jiva,and Holi).

3. Bungalow probably got a w on theend because many other English wordsthat have the same nal sound end inow:ow, glow, blow, stow, etc.

Words from French pages 9111. The words are ca and melee.

2. The \w\ sound is spelled with u insuave. In repertoire, boudoir, andcroissant the oiis pronounced\w\.

3. The two words are mirrorand miracle.

4. Some words ending with long a (\\)are entree, lyce, andsoiree.

Some words ending with long e (\ \)are agree, apogee, degree, disagree,lessee, pedigree, and reugee.

The endings o the words divorceeand repartee can be pronounced witheither a long a (\\) or a long e (\\).

5. The three eponyms are leotard,clementine, and chauvinism.

Eponyms page 121. The six eponyms based on characters

rom Greek or Roman mythology arenarcissistic, tantalize, hector, vulcanize,cupid, and mentor.

2. Answers will vary.

Words from German pages13141. The breeds are drahthaar, poodle,

aenpinscher, and Doberman.

2. The terminal sound \l\ is spelled elin the German style and le in themore English style.

3. The word autobahn has a moreanglicized pronunciation, probablybecause o the infuence o auto andautomobile.

Words from Slavic Languages page 151. The -nik sux occurs in beatnik,

peacenik, reusenik, and in otherwords that people coin rom time totime, such as olknik and neatnik.

2. Cravat is the odd one out; it is theonly one o the group that did notenter English via Yiddish.

Words from Dutch page 161. Cranberry, alpenglow, andsmearcase

are all part translations rom German.Grosbeak is rom French.

Words from Old English pages 17191. arrow 2. marrow 3.sparrow4.yarrow 5.shallow 6. tallow7. mallow 8. allow 9. loathe10.seethe 11. writhe 12.scythe

13. bristle 14. thistle 15. trestle16. epistle

Words from New WorldLanguages pages 20211. Pennyroyal, brooklime, and chickling

all are results o olk etymology.

2. Catalpa andguava are romNew World languages.

Words from Japanese page 221. Gingerand wok are not rom

Japanese. Notice that Japanesewords nearly always end with avowel sound or with \n\.

2. matsutake: 4 syllableskamikaze: 4 syllables

netsuke: 2 or 3 syllableswakame: 3 syllables

Words from Greek pages 2325The words provided or these exercisesare among the most common ones; youmay have thought o others.

1. catalysis, dialysis, paralysis

2. androgenous, misandry, androcracy

3. diadem, diagonal, diagram,diaphragm

4. isopropyl, isosceles, isotherm, isotope

5.pentagram, pentagon, pentameter,Pentateuchal, Pentecost

6. decagon, hexagon,heptagon, pentagon,nonagon, octagon, orthogonal

7. hyperthermia, hypothermia, isotherm,thermometer

Words from Italian pages 26271. The \w\ sound is spelled with u in

segue.

2. A sound we associate withjis spelledwithg in adagio.

3. The reason is probably simply thatmany words in English, representingall parts o speech, end withy.

4. Il Messico is the Italian name orMexico.

Words from Spanish pages 28291. The initial consonant sound is \h\.

2. The standard Spanish alphabet usesk only to spell words borrowed romother languages.

3. Machismo is sometimes pronouncedwith a \k\ sound rather than a \ch\sound.

4. The letter c has the \s \ sound incilantro, hacienda, and cedilla.

5. Words in English rom Arabic otenborrow the denite article al.

Be sure to visit www.myspellit.com orother activities, a list o Words You Need

to Know, and links to defnitions andpronunciations o words on theSpell It!study lists.

keY To exercISeS

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abouT The e.W. ScrIppS companY

The E.W. Scripps Company is a diverse, 131-year-old

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syndication of news features and comics. For a full listingof Scripps media companies and their associated Web sites,

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Be sure to visit www.myspellit.com or other activities, a listo Words You Need to Know, and links to defnitions andpronunciations o words on theSpell It! study lists.

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Today, the company continues as the leader in both print and

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Merriam-Webster on the Web

Merriam-Webster.comThe ree online dictionary is just

the beginningyoull also nd audio pronunciations, dailycrosswords and word games, Word o the Day, and Merriam-

Websters Open Dictionary, a popular collection o user-

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WordCentral.comMerriam-Websters site or kids eaturing

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Spell It! , an ofcial list o study wordsor school spelling champions,

compiled by Scripps and Merriam-Webster, includes:

The E.W. Scripps Companywww.spellingbee.com

Merriam-Webster Inc. Springfeld, MA 01102Merriam-Webster.com Merriam-WebsterUnabridged.com WordCentral.com

Tricks & Tipsfor Spelling Bee Success

More than 1150 words, divided into sectionsby language o origin

Basic study lists and special challenge words

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