How Well Can You Spell? (Spelling Bee Quiz)

You answered 52 of 84 questions correctly for a total score of 62%.
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Only by virtue of it being multiple choice :p . If it always gave country of origin it would have been much easier.
 
I got 11 wrong, but I honestly had to guess all the spellings for the words of the last decade (and missed about three). Why have they gone to such obscure words? The fun of spelling bees was hitting words that you'd heard and even seen in writing but now just weren't really sure about. Chihuahua, I notice, was in there for 1967. I find that funny, because I won my school spelling bee in 1964 with the same word. (And I'm ashamed to say, barely made it to the final five in the city wide bee, dropping out on "effigy". I knew the word... I'd just never seen it written.)

"Sycophant" is another good example and I note is in there earlier on. Everyone's heard. Most have seen it. But I watched six people in a row sit down because the first one started with "p-s-y-" and they all kept following suit. (That wasn't my big year - it was the year before I was in it.)
 
My hats off to the patience of those who made it through.

I got nine out of ten but gave up at that point because: one, I'd been pretty lucky. I took several educated guesses that worked out and I didn't want to press my luck and two, it was just too tedious.

But it's all good, I've so needed a word for a light fabric generally made out of silk or silk and cotton and there it was.
 
I haven't time to do the whole thing (84 questions? Seriously?) but out of the first ten, the only one I got wrong wasn't an English word at all, but a French word, and one that I'd never encountered before.

Out of the next ten I got one more wrong. That's 90% correct so far.
 
arthwollipot said:
I haven't time to do the whole thing (84 questions? Seriously?) but out of the first ten, the only one I got wrong wasn't an English word at all, but a French word, and one that I'd never encountered before.

Out of the next ten I got one more wrong. That's 90% correct so far.
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I was doing that well until later on. Maybe I lost patience with so many questions.
 
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72 of 84 (86%). I got the impression that every single one I missed was some kind of worsted-wool-and-rayon fabric...

The last decade was noticeably harsher, but also had two German lehnworts that were obvious from first principles although I'd never encountered that use before :p
 
only got as far as question 7 and it wouldn't go any further - timeouts on the website. oh well....
 
arthwollipot said:
I haven't time to do the whole thing (84 questions? Seriously?) but out of the first ten, the only one I got wrong wasn't an English word at all, but a French word, and one that I'd never encountered before.

Out of the next ten I got one more wrong. That's 90% correct so far.
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I think that's the first one I got wrong; I knew the word, but convinced myself it needed an 'e' on the end. I got another one wrong that I should have known, again by similar reasoning, then there were a couple I'd never heard of. I gave up around 34 words because the thing was just so slow to load every page.

I don't see how it's a test of spelling to know how to spell a word you've never encountered. If I've not come across it in fifty years of reading, it's pretty obscure. :)
 
I gut bord and didnt phinish it. It wus to long fir mee and I havint gut the tyme too do it. I think I did pritty gud tho!
 
Foolmewunz said:
Why have they gone to such obscure words? The fun of spelling bees was hitting words that you'd heard and even seen in writing but now just weren't really sure about.
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Hey somebody gets it, thank you. I quit this early on for exactly that reason. Who cares if kids memorize a bunch of ridiculously obscure words, many which they may never use or even see again?

I'd like to see "spelling bees" where ALL kids have to get up in front of their peers and spell more common words (and that largely determines your grade). The potential of making a fool of themselves by misspelling words like "definitely" or "their" might go a long way to combating the erosion of the written word that technology is ravaging, with its "text-ese" and similar gibberish.
 
I stopped at question 23 when I saw the spelling mistake (missed l) in the question. If they can't be bothered to proofread their questions, why should I assume they do any better with their answers. The "silk" question I just guessed.
 
68% -- It seemed way harder towards the end, I was around 50% at that point. Or maybe because I can barely keep my eyes open atm :)
 
zooterkin said:
I don't see how it's a test of spelling to know how to spell a word you've never encountered. If I've not come across it in fifty years of reading, it's pretty obscure. :)
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To be fair, it may have been common in 1923, or whenever that particular word came from.

I've never had any problems spelling. I always used to get 100% on spelling tests at school. But written multiple-choice questions like this just stack it in my favour. To really test me, you need to ask out loud "how do you spell floccinaucinihilipilification?" and require me to answer verbally.
 
Orphia Nay said:
I was doing that well until later on. Maybe I lost patience with so many questions.
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Yup. I got as far as number 61 and decide there must be a better way to spend my time.

I did better when I asked for a pronunciation. Missed a couple because I had never seen the word before and had my continuing problem with "avly" and "ivly".

The thing I like about spelling is that is just about the only skill I have that actually improves as I get older (so far ;)). As child and into my early twenties my slpedding was awful.
 
Got the first one right, realized it was going to be 168 slow page loads, with a dozen banner ads per page, and I don't want to give the CSM that ad revenue.

The "quiz" is designed to farm ad views, I'm not playing along.
 
arthwollipot said:
To be fair, it may have been common in 1923, or whenever that particular word came from.
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No, the early ones were not a problem, in general. This was, for example, 1961:
smaragdine - of or pertaining to emeralds.

I've never had any problems spelling. I always used to get 100% on spelling tests at school. But written multiple-choice questions like this just stack it in my favour. To really test me, you need to ask out loud "how do you spell floccinaucinihilipilification?" and require me to answer verbally.
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Yes, if it's a word I'm likely to have read, I'll usually know it (though there is some deterioration these days, whether that's age, or more time spent reading mis-spelt words on the internet I'm not sure). (I wouldn't know that one, though.)
 
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