Could You Spell Speleology?

Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other bedrock formations. Structures, history, physical properties, and life forms are studied. The way that things formed, are forming, and may change are also studied. Edouard-Alfred Martel is the "father of modern speleology." He explored caves and through his well publicized explorations, he introduced speleology as an independent study. There are many different areas in speleology.

In cave hydrology and geology, the water flow in caves and the rock formations are studied. Geochemistry speleothems are cave deposits, so geochemistry speleology is the study of cave deposits.

Cave cartography is the mapping of caves. (This comes in handy for spelunkers! For those not in the know, spelunking is deep cave diving.) Cave biology is the study of different life forms and their habitats.

However, that is not the reason for the recent news on speleology. It has recently appeared in many local spelling bees. It is certainly not the first time speleology has appeared in a spelling bee. In 2004, if not earlier, the word appeared in the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee.

It can only be guessed that it has been given in the word list from Scripps. The word lists come in a book and have many categories of many different words. Most people are lucky if they can spell even half of the words listed.

The word list adds and removes words from year to year, always differing. However, students who are determined to compete in spelling bees know that they cannot simply memorize how to spell the words in the book even though that would be quite a chore.

Scripps has many word lists and many of the words on them do not appear in the list of words in the book. Once a student passes to the national spelling bee, the words are much harder than what are listed in the book.

There may be a fewer easy words, but the need for elimination will require harder words to appear in every round. If a student gets a hard or an easy word, it is just random. There is not a way to determine the easy and hard words. It also depends on what the student knows and can gather.

So, could you spell speleology or even define it? How about some of these other words that have been featured in spelling bees?

nuciform, araneiform, histology, and lackadaisical