I’m a geek, yes I admit it! Yesterday I was watching the Scripps Spelling Bee finals.
Saw this on their website, the winners and the winning words. Notice how the words became exponentially more difficult in the recent years compared to when they started.
| YEAR | WORD | CHAMPION | SPONSOR |
| gladiolus | Frank Neuhauser |
| |
| 1926 | cerise | Pauline Bell | |
| 1927 | luxuriance | Dean Lucas |
|
| 1928 | albumen | Betty Robinson | |
| 1929 | asceticism | Virginia Hogan | The |
| fracas | Helen Jensen | | |
| 1931 | foulard | Ward Randall | White Hall Register-Republican, |
| 1932 | knack | Dorothy Greenwald |
|
| 1933 | torsion | Alma Roach | |
| 1934 | deteriorating | Sarah Wilson | |
| 1935 | intelligible | Clara Mohler |
|
| 1936 | interning | Jean Trowbridge | |
| 1937 | promiscuous | Waneeta Beckley | |
| 1938 | sanitarium | Marian Richardson | |
| 1939 | canonical | Elizabeth Ann Rice | |
| therapy | Laurel Kuykendall | The | |
| 1941 | initials | Louis Edward Sissman | |
| 1942 | sacrilegious | Richard Earnhart | El Paso Herald-Post, |
| 1946 | semaphore | John McKinney | |
| 1947 | chlorophyll | Mattie Lou Pollard |
|
| 1948 | psychiatry | Jean Chappelear | |
| 1949 | dulcimer | Kim Calvin | |
| meticulosity | Diana Reynard and Colquitt Dean |
| |
| 1951 | insouciant | Irving Belz |
|
| 1952 | vignette | Doris Ann Hall | |
| 1953 | soubrette | Elizabeth Hess |
|
| 1954 | transept | William Cashore | |
| 1955 | crustaceology | Sandra Sloss | |
| 1956 | condominium | Melody Sachko | The |
| 1957 | schappe | Sandra Owen and Dana Bennett | Rocky Mountain News, |
| 1958 | syllepsis | Jolitta Schlehuber | |
| 1959 | catamaran | Joel Montgomery | Rocky Mountain News, |
| eudaemonic | Henry Feldman | The | |
| 1961 | smaragdine | John Capehart | |
| 1962 | esquamulose | Nettie Crawford¹ and Michael Day | El Paso Herald-Post, |
| 1963 | equipage | Glen Van Slyke III | The |
| 1964 | sycophant | William Kerek |
|
| 1965 | eczema | Michael Kerpan Jr. |
|
| 1966 | ratoon | Robert A. Wake | |
| 1967 | | Jennifer Reinke | The |
| 1968 | abalone | Robert L. Walters | The |
| 1969 | interlocutory | Susan Yoachum |
|
| croissant | Libby Childress | | |
| 1971 | shalloon | Jonathan Knisely |
|
| 1972 | macerate | Robin Kral |
|
| 1973 | vouchsafe | | Fort Worth Press, |
| 1974 | hydrophyte | Julie Ann Junkin | |
| 1975 | incisor | Hugh Tosteson | San Juan Star, |
| 1976 | narcolepsy | Tim Kneale | |
| 1977 | cambist | John Paola | The |
| 1978 | deification | Peg McCarthy | The |
| 1979 | maculature | Katie Kerwin | Rocky Mountain News, |
| elucubrate | Jacques Bailly | Rocky Mountain News, | |
| 1981 | sarcophagus | Paige Pipkin | El Paso Herald-Post, |
| 1982 | psoriasis | Molly Dieveney | Rocky Mountain News, |
| 1983 | Purim | Blake Giddens² | El Paso Herald-Post, |
| 1984 | luge | Daniel Greenblatt | Loudoun Times-Mirror, |
| 1985 | milieu | Balu Natarajan | |
| 1986 | odontalgia | Jon Pennington | The Patriot News, |
| 1987 | staphylococci | Stephanie Petit | The |
| 1988 | elegiacal | Rageshree Ramachandran | The |
| 1989 | spoliator | Scott Isaacs | Rocky Mountain News, |
| fibranne | Amy Marie Dimak | The | |
| 1991 | antipyretic | Joanne Lagatta | The |
| 1992 | lyceum | Amanda Goad | The |
| 1993 | kamikaze | Geoff Hooper | The Commercial Appeal, |
| 1994 | antediluvian | Ned G. Andrews | The |
| 1995 | xanthosis | Justin Tyler Carroll³ | The Commercial Appeal, |
| 1996 | vivisepulture | Wendy Guey | The |
| 1997 | euonym | Rebecca Sealfon | Daily News, |
| 1998 | chiaroscurist | Jody-Anne Maxwell | Phillips & Phillips Stationery Suppliers, Ltd., |
| 1999 | logorrhea | Nupur Lala | The |
| demarche | George Abraham Thampy | | |
| 2001 | succedaneum | Sean Conley | Aitkin Independent Age, |
| 2002 | prospicience | Pratyush Buddiga | Rocky Mountain News, |
| 2003 | pococurante | Sai R. Gunturi | The |
| 2004 | autochthonous | David Scott Pilarski Tidmarsh | |
| 2005 | appoggiatura | Anurag Kashyap | San Diego Union-Tribune, |
| 2006 | Ursprache | Kerry Close |
|
| 2007 | serrefine | Evan M. O'Dorney | Contra Costa Times, |
| 2008 | guerdon | Sameer Mishra | Journal and Courier, |
| 2009 | Laodicean | Kavya Shivashankar | |
| 2010 | stromuhr | Anamika Veeramani | The Plain Dealer |
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