How do you pronounce pecan? Is it pee-KAHN or PEE-kan? And why are there different pronunciations of the name of this nut? The word pecan was borrowed into English more than once, and from numerous Native American languages that had variations on...
English spelling is a hot mess, even for native speakers. But as a new book shows, would-be spelling reformers, including Benjamin Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, eventually just gave up. Also, what do you call your fellow parent in front of the...
In Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell (Bookshop|Amazon), Gabe Henry recounts the story of the first national spelling bee in 1908, which some contestants had threatened to boycott because one of the contestants from...
So you think you can spell? Youngsters in modern spelling bees are expected to memorize a wide range of words, from chemical processes to names of rare animals. Also: In many languages, the word for “mother” begins with the letter M —...
Two words from the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee prep materials: avahi, a term for a woolly lemur of Madagascar, and saltigrade, which describes spiders and other creatures that have feet and limbs adapted for leaping. Saltigrade is...
When Martha agreed to serve as pronouncer for the San Diego County Scripps Regional Spelling Bee, she assumed her task would be easy. Instead, it was one of the most humbling experiences of her life. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...