2011 Scripps Sentences-

Round 20-
cymotrichous- “There is considerable debate among musicologists about whether there is a causal
relationship between Bon Jovi’s most awesome tunes and the band’s cymotrichous era.”
2012 Scripps Sentences-
Round 13-
guetapens- “Matthew and Alexander’s mother suspected a guetapens every time they would start a
conversation with, ‘How much do you love us?’”
2014 Scripps Sentences-
Round 21-
feuilleton- “It was in the feuilleton of the Paris newspaper that Cherie learned she was not the only
one who dressed her dog in her other dog’s hand-me-downs.”
2015 Scripps Sentences-
Round 5-
procrypsis- “The katydid’s procrypsis makes it look a lot like a small green leaf.”
Round 6-
emmetropia- “Amanda’s lack of emmetropia necessitated her dependence on corrective lenses for
normal vision.”
Round 7-
bouillabaisse- “Dane was horrified to find his mother had prepared bouillabaisse as a sleepover snack
for his friends.”
cerastes- “Angela appreciated the souvenirs her mother brought home with her from Egypt, except
maybe the cerastes that slithered out of her carry-on.”
hacek- “The priest, philosopher and reformer Jan Hus introduced the haček into Czech orthography.”
cytopoiesis- “When Marnie accused him of being lazy, lounging in a hammock all day, Pranjal
countered by saying his bone marrow was hard at work through cytopoiesis.”
crannog- “Toby thought if he could construct a crannog in the neighborhood pond, the boat ride might
discourage his parents from coming to tell him to do his homework.”
bacchius- “Rumor has it that Drake’s next mixtape contains a rap in which every verse begins and
ends with a bacchius.”
cocozelle- “Diana still hasn't heard back from the creator of the Emojis app about her petition to
replace the eggplant emoji with a cocozelle.”
samadhi- “The monk explained that several external obstacles had to be overcome in order to attain
samadhi, but promised Sarah that getting through the 15th level of Candy Crush was not one of
them.”
Albumblatt- “After losing to a dancing dog last year, Marissa was confident that playing an Albumblatt
while balancing a sword on her chin would finally win her first prize in the talent show.”
billiken- “The campus of Saint Louis University has a statue of its mascot, the billiken.”
Round 8-
Hippocrene- “As a budding young poet, the third-grader found Hippocrene in the graceful spill of
Izadora's long brown hair, though it's unclear why that led him to repeatedly pull it.”
backfisch- “Daley was horrified to find she related more to the novel’s antagonistic backfisch than to
the story’s heroine.”
poikilitic- “Poikilitic texture in rocks is most easily observed in petrographic thin sections.”
gnathostome- “In addition to opposing jaws, a gnathostome also has teeth and paired appendages.”
poblacion- “Lemuel traveled to the población every weekday for high school and for church on
Sundays.”
commissurotomy- “After his mother went into detail about the commissurotomy she performed on
someone's brain that morning, Dave requested that she just reply "fine" next time he asks how her
day was.”
reclame- “The critic attributed 50 percent of the singer's fame to réclame, and the rest to Auto-Tune.”
Tartarean- “Bryan was grateful that having his MP3 player and headphones on the car trip kept him
from suffering the Tartarean depths of his sister's taste in music.”
Round 9-
oflag- “JP was fascinated by the memoirs of a British lieutenant who spent time in a World War II
oflag.”
bayadere- “Morgan initially liked the t-shirt with its pattern of bayadere, but later discarded it on
account of the immense headache she got when looking at it.”
iridocyclitis- “Treatment of iridocyclitis should begin as early as possible to prevent permanent vision
damage.”
Canossa- “Going to Canossa involves more penance than does ‘eating humble pie.’”
tortillon- “While looking for her dropped tortillon in art class, Susan Marie found yesterday's chewing
gum -- and it was still good.”
minhag- “When Ari returns home for Passover, the minhag is for his family to eat unleavened bread
and also for his mother to ask him if he is seeing anyone.”
Round 10-
cibarial- “The first time Kathy tried to cook moussaka, the result was a cardboard-like brick that could
hardly be considered cibarial.”
zygoneure- “Dr. Sietsema here tells me he knows so much about the movie ‘Frozen’, that he feels like
his brain has the lyrics to ‘Let It Go’ written in every zygoneure.”
acritarch- “The oldest acritarch has been recovered from sediment deposited as far back as 3.2 billion
years ago.”
Round 11-
bouquetiere- “Jason tolerated Blair’s odd taste in food until he saw her eating a bowl of Cheerios,
bouquetiere.”
caudillismo- “After the vegetable-eating incident at dinner, Hector and Lucia had to remind their
children the family was not a democracy but a caudillismo.”
Round 12-
thamakau- “Ratu hauled the enormous fish into the thamakau and paddled carefully back to shore.”
scytale- “If the recipient of a Spartan scytale did not possess a decoding rod of the same diameter as
that of the sender’s, he would presumably be unable to read the enclosed message.”
Round 13-
tantieme- “Sophie and Tyler were confused by the small tantieme they received from their lemonade
stand, until they tasted their terrifyingly tart beverage.”
cypseline- “Cypseline birds often attach themselves by saliva to vertical surfaces, such as a tree, a
building, or in one unfortunate incident, the back of Todd's head at the aviary.”
Round 14-
urgrund- “Nuria tried in vain to explain to her son Javier that the urgrund behind all things in life was
not FC Barcelona.”
filicite- “Sydney was able to find the largest filicite in an old limestone quarry on the new reality show,
‘Who can find the largest filicite in an old limestone quarry?’”
Round 15-
myrmotherine- “Emmy and Sicily hoped the bear would continue with his myrmotherine activities, and
ignore the terrified humans slowly walking backward on the hiking trail.”
sprachgefuhl- “The linguist was so skilled that the dependability of his sprachgefuhl was never in
question.”
Round 16-
zimocca- “While the zimocca is found in the Mediterranean Sea, my children are more familiar with its
American cousin with the square pants, known as ‘Bob.’”
nixtamal- ‘Nixtamal is nutritionally superior to plain ground cornmeal, providing a good source of
niacin in the traditional Central American diet.”
Round 17-
hippocrepiform- “The pollen-producing anthers of some plants are hippocrepiform.”
paroemiology- “The new collection of proverbs had been edited by Professor Mieder, a leading
authority on paroemiology.”
Round 18-
scacchite- “At the base of the mountain, the geologist diligently searched for the presence of
scacchite to determine if a volcano could be nearby, while his colleagues merely looked at the
towering cloud of ash exploding into the sky.”
pipsissewa- “Brad discovered that, while pipsissewa makes root beer taste delicious, adding it to his
mother’s fish stew, not so much.”
Round 19-
Bruxellois- “Much to the annoyance of the Bruxellois behind the counter, Rusty instagrammed a photo
of every piece of chocolate in the shop.”
pyrrhuloxia- “While in Mexico, Jackson’s vociferous reaction to super-spicy salsa ruined his chance at
spotting a local pyrrhuloxia.”
Round 20-
scherenschnitte- “It took Sarah much longer to learn how to spell scherenschnitte than to learn the
first steps involved in the art of paper cutting.”
nunatak- “Marlene hiked grudgingly to the nunatak, wondering for the tenth day in a row why she
hadn't chosen tropical reefs instead of glaciers as the subject of her graduate work.”
2016 Scripps Sentences-
Round 8-
chaussure- “Sneakerheads, like 2015 co-champion Gokul Venkatachalam are aficionados of athletic
chaussure.”
galago- “On her website’s ‘About Me’ section, Maggie described herself as a highly evolved woman,
with the wit of Joy Behar and the plaintive eyes of a galago.”
Round 9-
lovat- “My wife Leslyn told me she likes my new kilt in lovat, but it wasn’t appropriate for me to wear
today.”
Round 10-
amanitin- Amanitin poisoning causes severe damage to the liver and kidneys, and eventually the
complete failure of both systems.
hypozeuxis- “The following sentence exemplifies hypozeuxis: Rihanna sang, Drake rapped, and
Twitter buzzed about our name drops.”
Round 11-
iiwi- “The bright red plumage makes the iiwi very identifiable, as does his name tag, which reads,
‘Hello! My name is Kevin,’.”
Round 12-
gisant- “The gisant was carved with its feet resting on a dog, which symbolized faithfulness, and a
feather boa, which symbolized fabulousness.”
Round 17-
achalasia- “Achalasia of the esophagus reduces peristalsis and makes it difficult for the body to move
food into the stomach.”
Round 14-
quillon- “From the sticky chocolate smears left on the quillon, it was obvious that Jean-Pierre was the
last to use the broadsword.”
Round 15-
launeddas- “Russ thought there was no way Erin could turn down his “prom-posal” after he played her
an elaborate Bruno Mars medley on his launeddas, but she did.”
Round 18-
ripieno- “The three ripieno violinists dutifully played the same four notes over and over, until the day
that Herbert decided to listen to his heart.”
Round 19-
giallolino- “While painting a portrait for his shrine of Stephen Curry, the artist used giallolino to help
create the perfect hue for his Golden State Warriors jersey.”
Round 21-
ergataner- “To an entomologist, an ergataner resembles a worker, but to my pet horned toad, he looks
just like dinner.”
Round 22-
keurboom- “Sam contemplated the beauty of the blooming keurboom, as he sailed over the
handlebars of his mountain bike.”
Round 23-
gyttja- “Sasha assumed that health enthusiasts would love her new smoothie made solely from gyttja,
found in a local lake, and she was right.”
Round 24-
chremslach- “After years of practice, the Rosen family concluded that Aunt Greta’s chremslach was
their favorite thing to pretend to eat, but discreetly spit into a napkin.”
Round 27-
ayacahuite- “Carlos was happy to find himself finally living his dream, making hideously ugly holiday
ornaments out of the cones of the ayacahuite, and selling them on Etsy.”
Round 29-
lygaeid- “There are between 3,000 and 5,000 species of lygaeid bugs, many of which are pests
harmful to crops, fruit trees, and other plants.”
écorché- “While Quincy had an écorché to help him learn about anatomy for medical school, and
Annie had an écorché to use as a model for figure drawing, Peyton had an écorché just because.”
Round 34-
haab- “Gerard couldn’t believe it had been one whole haab since he had learned what the word haab
meant.”
Round 36-
Groenendael- “The well trained Groenendael could do just about every trick, except spell
Groenendael.”
Round 37-
Mischsprache- “William skipped lunch to go to his linguistics professor, so eager to find out if there
was such a thing as a true Mischsprache.”
tetradrachm- “Pappou Nick convinced his young grandchildren that the coin was an actual
tetradrachm, when really, it was just a quarter that had been run over on the railroad tracks.”
2017 Scripps Sentences-
Round 4-
alopecia- “It was Charlie Brown's alopecia that helped his mom find him on the crowded playground.”
outarde- “The outarde that chased Marie in the parking lot of the grocery store was the rudest
Canadian she'd ever met.”
whirlicote- “In the version of Cinderella that Katie wrote for drama class, the fairy godmother turns the
whirlicote back into a pumpkin spiced latte.”
obliviscence- “Sometimes people tell me that I show signs of obliviscence. Did I tell you that
sometimes people tell me that I show signs of obliviscence?”
Round 7-
foederatus- “Pedro got so sick of correcting people who described his Halloween costume as merely
'Roman army soldier' that he carried around a sign that said ‘I'm a foederatus, you ignoramus!’”
Round 11-
bautta- “Heather’s brother suggested she post a Tinder photo where she’s NOT wearing a bautta, if
she wanted to get less creepy responses.”
2018 Scripps Sentences-
Round 4-
Dealated- “In most ant species, reproduction is restricted to mated, dealated queens.”
Round 5-
nundinal- “Lucius visited the market on nundinal days to buy some fresh octopush.”
Round 6-
molluscivorous- “Examples of molluscivorous animals are certain tropical marine snails as well as
various species of octopush.”
Round 7-
glycyrrhizin- “The speller needed to take glycyrrhizin for the ulcer she developed trying to spell
‘glycyrrhizin’.”
Round 10-
Funest- “As the speller saw the funest movement of the judges’s hand toward the bell, she decided to
use the opportunity to thank all the little people who got her where she is today.”
pseudepigrapha- “Jasmine realized the speaker was spouting pseudepigrapha as soon as he quoted
Moses saying, ‘Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake,
shake, shake. Shake it off!’”
Round 17-
Bewusstseinslage- “Dr. Dieter described his son’s attitude toward academic matters as an apathetic
Bewusstseinslage.”
haecceitas- “When Corrie asked her friends what contributed to her haecceitas, they quickly listed
three things: noodles, soup, and really awesome hair.”
2019 Scripps Sentences-
Round 4-
cyclamen- “When Beth confirmed to her son that her favorite flower was the cyclamen, he breathed a
sigh of relief, then revealed a full back tattoo of a cyclamen surrounded with the words ‘I Heart Mom’.”
Round 5-
oxyrhynch- “Keisha’s book about the joys and perils of raising a spider crab in your apartment was
called ‘There’s an Oxyrhynch in my Sink’.”
pervenche- “OPI calls this particular color of nail polish ‘You Don’t Know Jacques,’ but this Jacques
knows it should really be called “dark pervenche”.
Round 6-
chernozem- “Chernozem is valued for its high agricultural yield, and is even sold on the black market
in Europe.”
Round 7-
yperite- “Yperite was used as a chemical weapon against soldiers in World War I.”
Round 11-
bassanello- “Everyone was shocked at the VMAs when Imagine Dragons threw down their
instruments and chose to play the song entirely on the bassanello.”
Round 15-
passacaglia- “Only one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositions is a true passacaglia, while none of
the works by Sebastian Bach, the lead singer of Skid Row from 1987 to 1996, is believed to be one.”
caramoussal- “Taking a ride on a caramoussal would be fun, but nowhere near as fun as hearing me
say ‘high-pooped’.”
Round 20-
auslaut- “The speller deftly ignored my hilarious sentence, and focused with razor precision on the
auslaut of her word.”
bougainvillea- “Alia realized that if she just wore a flower crown made of bougainvillea, no one would
notice her extremely ill-advised decision to give herself bangs.”
palama- “The palama on the feet of ducks and loons acts as a paddle when swimming, allowing them
to move quickly through the water.”