'Sorbefacient' knocks Beach teen out of national spelling bee

WASHINGTON

With about a thousand hours of studying behind her, Rebecca Willett stepped up to the microphone. The Virginia Beach 13-year-old was making her second appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Under the bright television lights, she adjusted the microphone at the front of the stage in the ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Washington.

Rebecca had made it to Round 3, in the quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon. The 288 master spellers had been winnowed to 90.

Rebecca, a home-schooled eighth-grader, had survived a written test with words like galimatias, miscible and loquacity earlier in the week. She spelled "culpable" correctly on stage a few hours before.

"Sorbefacient," said pronouncer Jacques Bailly.

Rebecca asked for the definition twice, learned that the root was Latin, and mulled it over. She let out a small sigh and started spelling. A bell rang. Like last year, she was one vowel off.

The word is an adjective that means "producing absorption," such as kitty litter on a gasoline spill. The root word is the Latin "sorbere." She spelled it "sorbifacient." An "i" instead of an "e."

"It wasn't a root I knew, so I can't kick myself," Rebecca said afterward. "I used everything I knew."

Only 63 spellers made it to Round 4 after encountering words such as quaquaversal, heliophobous and senectitude. (It might not be much consolation, but this newspaper's spelling program didn't recognize any of them either.)

Because she is an eighth-grader, this was Rebecca's last chance at a national spelling bee championship. She's sad, but not disappointed.

"I've worked really hard for something. It doesn't always turn out the way you wanted to, but it's still good," she said.

Rebecca was representing The Virginian-Pilot in the competition for the second year. Last year, she was the first student to represent South Hampton Roads at the national bee since 1979, and she reached the fourth round.

The letter "e" also messed her up last year. She tried an "o" instead of the "e" in "gastrilegous."

"You usually use an 'i' for a Latin schwa" - a vowel sound not tied to a particular letter - she explained. "Nothing can work all the time."

But she and her parents said the experience was worth all her study time, which amounted to about two hours a day for most of two years.

"Her understanding of the English language is so much richer," said her mother, Kim, who served as Rebecca's coach. "So is mine."

And there's another bonus, she said. "We don't need to worry about the SATs."

Rebecca, who wants to be a professional pianist, won't be putting down the dictionaries and spelling software just yet.

Her younger sister, Caroline, 10, has been watching closely. She's already the regional home-schooling champion at the elementary level, and said she's always wanted to make it to the national bee.

She's already picked up one tidbit.

"When in doubt, guess e," Caroline said.

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com