Spelling Bee for Experts Trivia

1. One of the longest words in the English is the technical term for C1289H2051N343O375S. What are the first five letters of this word?

From Quiz Words of Incredible Length

Answer: Methi

I would spell out the whole word for you, but since it is more than 1,800 letters long, I believe I will just tell you that it is a protein with 267 amino acids.

From Quiz Unusual Words II - More Odd Spellings

Answer: shigella

Don't you think 'shigella' sounds more like a shimmery '60s dance than a nasty little bug? It seems much too cute a word to belong to something so unpleasant!

From Quiz Spelling: As Easy as you Once Thought?

Answer: supersede&supercede

Yes, interestingly enough, the suffix is not the typical -ceed, such as in suceed, or -cede, such as in precede, but with the -sede. Fortunately enough, it is the only word in our language possessing such a quality.

From Quiz Impossible US Spelling Bee 2005

Answer: souvenir

This was the first word on the National Spelling Bee written test in 2005. It comes from the French phrase, "se souvenir," meaning to remember.

From Quiz Put It All Together Yet Again

Answer: metacarpal

met (rendezvoused), a (one), car (vehicle), pal (companion).

From Quiz Put It All Together Again

Answer: castigate

cast (throw), i (ninth letter), gate (movable barrier).

From Quiz Put It All Together

Answer: domesticate

domes (round roofs), tic (twitch), ate (consumed).

From Quiz Put Them Together They Spell........

Answer: tomorrow

A male turkey is a TOM; the conjunction OR is used to indicate alternatives in a list; a ROW is a number of items arrayed in a linear fashion. The word TOMORROW was originally written as two words, to morrow, before becoming hyphenated in the 16th century, and written as a single word in the 20th century. The word morrow comes from the Old English 'morgen', meaning morning. So tomorrow originally meant something like 'in the morning'.

From Quiz Very Tough Spelling Bee

Answer: piccalilli

From Quiz Unusual Words II - More Odd Spellings

Answer: dimissory

It really looks as if it should have a 'dis' prefix. But it doesn't, I'm afraid. (The word dismissory does, and has the same meaning.)

From Quiz Unusual Words - Can You Spell Them?

Answer: pseudocarp

This word does not mean "false fish"; it means "false fruit", from the Greek "pseudes" (false, lying) and "karpos" (fruit). Fruits can be classified as either true or false fruits. A true fruit grows only from the ovary of a flower after fertilization. Examples include tomatoes, grapes, lemons, coconuts, and mangoes. A false fruit (also known as an accessory fruit or pseudocarp) grows from other parts of the flower, such as the receptacle or sepals. Examples include apples, pears, strawberries, pineapples, and cashews. By the way, if a false fruit is a pseudocarp, the corresponding term for a true fruit is eucarp, from the Greek "eu" (true, good, well).

From Quiz Spelling: As Easy as you Once Thought?

Answer: playwright

Those who play right are right-players, not playwrights. Well, since they write plays, they should be "play-writes," right? Wrong. A play writer in Old English was called a "play worker", and "wright" is from an old form of "work" (as in "wrought iron", etc.). Compare with "to wreak havoc".

From Quiz Impossible US Spelling Bee 2005

Answer: xenocentric

This word comes from the same root as "xenophobia," meaning "fear of strangers or foreigners". Those who have seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" may remember the term "xeno," meaning foreigner, that was used in it.

From Quiz Put It All Together Yet Again

Answer: penitent

pen (enclosure), i (Roman one), tent (shelter).

From Quiz Very Tough Spelling Bee

Answer: entomophilous

From Quiz Words of Incredible Length

Answer: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a word to say when you don't know what to say. It was once a nonsense word from "Mary Poppins", but became a new word after being so popular among people when the movie came out.

From Quiz Unusual Words II - More Odd Spellings

Answer: brougham

'Brougham' is pronounced like 'broo-um'. English is such an odd language!

From Quiz Unusual Words - Can You Spell Them?

Answer: sphagnum

Sphagnum is the genus name of a group of approximately 380 species of mosses. It is derived from the ancient Greek "sphagnos" meaning "the name of a spiny shrub and a kind of moss". It is pronounced S-FAG-num. (Sphagnum rhymes with magnum, but I've yet to see that in a poem). Sphagnum moss is widely used in gardening and terrariums, particularly those for reptiles, because it holds up to 20 times its weight in water while maintaining good airflow.

From Quiz Spelling: As Easy as you Once Thought?

Answer: millennium

A double "l" and a double "n" is found in "millennium". How unusual!

From Quiz Impossible US Spelling Bee 2005

Answer: coiffure

This word, given in the 3rd round, eliminated one of the favorites to win the competition, Kendra Yoshinaga. This was considered by many to be one of the hardest words in the round. It comes from the French word "coiffer" meaning groom.

From Quiz Put It All Together Again

Answer: passionate

pass (convey), ion (charge), ate (ingested).

From Quiz Put Them Together They Spell........

Answer: candidate

In the United Kingdom, a metal container in which foods are preserved is called a tin; in the United States it is called a CAN. (See below for an unrelated anecdote.) If someone has carried out an activity, they DID it. And if they then consumed something (maybe from a can?) they ATE it. A CANDIDATE is someone who is seeking election or appointment, or who has been proposed to be approved for an appointment. The word has its origins in the Latin word 'candidatus', meaning white-robed. It referred to the especially white toga (perhaps whitened with chalk to make it shine white) worn by Romans who were seeking office, to indicate the purity of their hearts. An example of a joke that does not transfer across the Atlantic, which I recall being told in my childhood: The English tourist was very impressed with the size of the harvest on a farm he visited, and said so to the farmer. The farmer replied, "We eat what we can, and what we can't we can." On his return home, the tourist attempted to regale his friends with this joke, but just got confused looks when he delivered the punchline, "We eat what we can, and what we can't we tin."

From Quiz Very Tough Spelling Bee

Answer: macaque

From Quiz Words of Incredible Length

Answer: floccinaucinihilipilification

Floccinaucinihilipilification has 29 letters in it. There are certainly a lot of i's in it!

From Quiz Unusual Words II - More Odd Spellings

Answer: muntjac

I wonder if any South-East Asian dogs have ever been confused by this deer using their sound.

From Quiz Unusual Words - Can You Spell Them?

Answer: pejorate

The words pejorate and (the more commonly heard) pejorative are often confused with the unrelated word "perjury". Pejorate and pejorative are derived from the Latin "peiorare" meaning "to make something worse". (The reason for the use of the letter "i" instead of "j" in peiorare is because the classical Latin alphabet did not contain the letter "j". The letter "j" evolved later as a variant of "i"). When a word is described as being pejorative, it means that it has a negative or disrespectful connotation. An example would be to refer to someone as stubborn or obstinate, instead of the more neutral words firm or resolute. In terms of the meaning "depreciate in value", an example of usage is reflected in the following sentence: "The peeling paint had a pejorative effect on the market value of the house".

This is category 24897
Last Updated Sep 12 2026 5:57 AM

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.