Would “nyctinasty” cause you to stumble?
That word — defined as the circadian rhythm-based nastic movement of higher plants in response to the onset of darkness, of course — didn’t trip up 13-year-old Westminster speller Aditi Muthukumar, who spelled it correctly Tuesday in the first round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The eighth grader, who tied for 74th place at last year’s Scripps Bee, also nailed the definition for “viscidity” (answer: stickiness) in the second round and correctly spelled “lamina,” a thin layer, to complete the third round and advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Aditi, who attends Hulstrom K-8 in Northglenn, made it to the Scripps Bee by winning the Denver Post-sponsored state spelling bee.
She and 11-year-old Cooper Edwards, sponsored by the Boulder Valley School District, were the two Coloradans among the 245 contestants at the annual gathering of the nation’s best spellers, which is being held outside of Washington, D.C., this week.
Cooper, a fifth-grader at Niwot Elementary School, correctly spelled the word “echelon” and knew that “parochial” meant “within the jurisdiction of a church parish” in the first two rounds. But he was bested in Tuesday’s third round by the word “butyraceous,” meaning “of or like butter.”
Aditi — a Jane Austen fan who enjoys writing stories, performing Indian classical dance and playing the flute — now advances to the quarterfinals, along with 147 other spellers, for the second straight year.
The finals are set to take place Thursday evening.
The Scripps Bee is airing on the ION television network this year and can be streamed on ION Plus, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com.
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