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Life

10th Mar 2017

This 5-year-old girl just became the youngest ever contestant of the American National Spelling Bee

Rory Cashin

The winning word was Jnana, a word we’ve never heard of before, and even written down in front of us, we’re still not entirely sure we could spell it this time tomorrow.

That wasn’t a problem for 5-year-old Edith Fuller of Oklahoma, who spelled the word correctly (it apparently means knowledge, based on Indian philosophy), and became the youngest ever contestant to enter the National Spelling Bee in the competition’s 90 year history.

Talking to Tulsa World, Edith’s mother said she only became aware of her daughter’s ability last year when she spelled the word “restaurant” without being thought how, but despite the obvious impressive nature of her talents, she was even more impressed that her daughter managed to stay still for the four-hour-long qualifying round.

Clip Via TulsaWorldTV

Here’s the full list of words Edith had to spell in order to progress to the National competition. To be honest, we probably would’ve been out by the fifth one:

1. Dracula
2. Layette
3. Odori
4. Colloquial
5. Sevruga
6. Staccato
7. Panglossian
8. Troika
9. Picaresque
10. Lieutenant
11. Kama
12. Mesmerize
13. Tritium
14. Pernicious
15. Buddha
16. Minaret
17. Dahlia
18. Tamarind
19. Virgule
20. Eocene
21. Zephyr
22. Fuselage
23. Nisei
24. Philately
25. Euthanasia
26. Jacamar
27. Chauvinism
28. Alim
29. Perestroika
30. Fennec
31. Lahar
32. Weimaraner
33. Fete
34. Baedeker
35. Sarsaparilla
36. Croesus
37. Jnana