Words North Texas spellers faced at the Scripps National Spelling Bee

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — For all the talk about roots and origins of words, you’d think you were listening to etymology professors — not middle schoolers.

The contestants at the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee proved they’re masters of more than just spelling to get to Wednesday’s semifinals.

To advance to the semifinals, Plano’s Dhroov Bharatia, Keller’s Vivinsha Veduru and 46 others had to spell three words and answer a question about the meaning of a word from a list of answer choices correctly — a component organizers added last year to “further advance the Bee’s focus on word knowledge and literacy.”

One of these questions eventually perplexed Veduru, who incorrectly answered one Wednesday about the meaning of the word ragout. Bharatia also failed to advance to Thursday’s finals after misspelling the word ostreger.

Here are the North Texas spellers’ words:

Dhroov Bharatia

• Obnebulate: to darken, dim or cover as if with a cloud.
• Blondinette: a breed of small plump show pigeons that are bred in several colors. A characteristic of the blondinette is its peaked crest.
• Limen: the point at which a physiological or psychological effect begins to be produced.
• Novatian: one of an early Christian schismatic sect existing from A.D. 251 to the 6th or 7th century that denied that the church should restore lapsed Christians to membership and advocated a rigidly purist conception of church membership.
• Ostreger: a keeper of long-tailed hawks with short, rounded wings. Bharatia misspelled this as “austriger.”
• The meaning of roustabout: a laborer with no technical training.
• The meaning of cupidity: a strong desire for wealth.

Vivinsha Veduru

• Anicca: evanescence or impermanence of existence, an essential doctrine of Buddhism.
• Tutti: a direction for people who sing or play instruments.
• Nucament: a floral spike with scaly bracts and flowers without petals.
• Malacophyllous: having soft or fleshy leaves.
• The meaning of supplicate: request modestly of someone or something.
• The meaning of ragout: a well-seasoned meat and vegetables dish cooked in a thick sauce. Veduru answered that the word meant a diverse group of people.