Chthonic, psammophile: The best spelling bee words to add to your vocab

Psammophile, chthonic: Scripps National Spelling Bee's best words - The Washington Post

Chthonic
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Tarini Nandakumar, 12, was eliminated when she offered an incorrect definition of “chthonic,” which means “relating to the underworld,” deriving from the Ancient Greek “khthon,” or soil. Hades and Persephone are chthonic deities, and the word can also be used more poetically to describe something dark and deathly, with a sinister power. The Washington Post deployed it in 1985 to describe a deep, dark patch of forest in a review of a science fiction novel by Robert Holdstock. Chthonic also the name of a Taiwanese heavy metal band.

Leguleian

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A leguleian is a lawyer known for being petty and argumentative, with a tendency to fixate on minor details and technicalities, according to LSD Law. It can be used to describe anyone with those undesirable traits, law degree or no. If someone is prosecuting a trivial point with you as if they were standing in front of a judge, they are being a leguleian, or behaving in a leguleian manner. Its closest synonym, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is also a fun noun: pettifogger.

Sarah Fernandes, 11, the youngest speller to reach the finals, was eliminated when she missed that tricky “a.” .

Omphaloskepsis

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Another word gifted to the English language from Ancient Greek, it combines omphalos — navel — with skepsis — to examine, more commonly expressed as the act of navel-gazing. Neutrally, it can describe looking at the stomach while deep in meditation — an ancient religious and philosophical practice. However, these terms are often now used with a note of derision, applied to someone who is self-absorbed. After asking a few questions, Charlotte Walsh, 14, correctly provided the word’s definition to the Scripps judges.

Psammophile

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Dev Shah, 14, won the 2023 bee when he correctly spelled psammophile: a plant or animal adapted to live among sand. The word combines psammos, the Ancient Greek for sand, with phile, which means lover in the same language — as in, bibliophile, a lover of books, francophile, a lover of all things French, or phonophile, a lover of records. Psammophiles themselves are examples of extremophiles, organisms that love extreme environments.

Rommack

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Rommack means to romp or play boisterously. Although it’s not a long or complicated word, it’s of unknown origin, meaning spellers can’t use knowledge of a particular language to make educated guesses.This was one of the words correctly spelled by Shah, the overall champion, who visibly sighed in relief upon getting it right.

Amy B Wang, Lizzie Johnson and Maham Javaid contributed to this report.