Do you know the meaning of the word “pullulation”?
Harini Logan does — and she’ll probably never forget it for the rest of her life.
The 14-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland on Thursday night — a victory made possible by a correct definition she gave for pullulation.
This year’s competition had brought back a round in which contestants had to provide the meanings of some obscure words — a section that proved so tough it eliminated a big chunk of players.
Harini would have been given the boot, too, had judges on Wednesday not reconsidered the definition she gave for pullulation — the nesting of mating birds (her response) versus the swarming of bees (the judges’ definition) — as acceptable, thus reinstating her to the competition.
At Thursday night’s final, the field was gradually reduced down until just Harini and 12-year-old Vikram Raju from Denver were left.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/national-spelling-bee-winner-harini-logan-wins-spell-off
