A seventh-grader who attends Notre Dame Academy in San Diego correctly spelled two words in the preliminary rounds of the 89th Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland on Wednesday but was unable to make the finals.
Ella Grace Peters correctly spelled "polity," meaning civil order, and "apologue," an allegorical narrative usually intended to convey a moral.
However, she missed the definition of a vocabulary word, "expugnable," which means capable of being conquered. Her other vocabulary word, "allusive" — meaning marked by indirect reference — was correct. The preliminary rounds include a vocabulary test.
Ella was one of 285 spellers from around the country who took to the stage at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. The preliminary rounds cut the field to 45 for Thursday's competition.
The bass player in an all-girl rock band, the Misnomers, she qualified for the national bee by winning the San Diego County Spelling Bee on March 15. Her final word was phlegm.
The San Diego area has had two recent winners: Snigdha Nandipati in 2012 and Anurag Kashyap seven years earlier.
