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Ananya Vinay, 12, from California, won the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2017
Ananya Vinay, 12, from California, won the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2017 Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Ananya Vinay, 12, from California, won the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2017 Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Can you beat previous National Spelling Bee winners? Take our test

This article is more than 5 years old

The Scripps National Spelling Bee reaches its climax this week. Can you spell the words that won the competition in years past? Spellings are from Webster’s Third New International Dictionary

  1. 1.A stupidly easy effort was the key back in 1930. How do you spell this word, meaning a noisy disturbance or quarrel?
  2. 2.In 1967 this dog breed clinched the competition for Jennifer Reinke ...
  3. 3.From 1965, this word is a common skin condition
  4. 4.The thing about skin conditions is that they're pretty hard to spell. Here's another one, which Molly Dieveney won with in 1982 ...
  5. 5.Go on, another skin one for you. This word from the 1962 edition means not scaly - or smooth skinned
  6. 6."A tendency to extreme wordiness". Spell this zinger from the 1999 Spelling Bee
  7. 7.Anamika Veeramani won in 2010 after getting this one, a type of medical instrument ...
  8. 8.This is from the 2011 edition. Having wavy hair is spelled ...
  9. 9.1942's winner means profane or unholy ...
  10. 10.Jody-Anne Maxwell from Jamaica was the first non-American winner, in 1998. Her word, a type of painter, was ...
  11. 11.This word, derived from an ancient city in Greek Asia Minor won Kavya Shivashankar the prize in 2009
  12. 12.And to wrap things up, a gimme from 2005. San Diego's Anurag Kashyap knew how to spell this musical term ...

More on this story

More on this story

  • Floridian 14-year-old lands ‘psammophile’ to take home spelling bee prize

  • How can the languishing National Spelling Bee regain its sting? Go global

  • US National Spelling Bee: 16 fantastic facial expressions – in pictures

  • How the downsized National Spelling Bee can regain its pre-pandemic sting

  • Spell bound: the enduring appeal of word puzzles

  • I was asked to invent the next Wordle. How hard could it be?

  • Scripps National Spelling Bee 2017: championship finals – as it happened

  • Ananya Vinay, 12, spells 'marocain' to win National Spelling Bee

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