National Spelling Bee Kids Spell Twerk, Emoji and New Dictionary Words
Find out which new words were added to the dictionary this year.
— -- "Twerk" is now officially a word.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary just announced more than 1700 new words have been added to the official unabridged American dictionary.
Other linguistic highlights include “NSFW,” “emoji” “vocal fry” and “clickbait.”
While these words are unlikely to show-up in classrooms (yet), we asked a few of the kid contestants at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the Washington, D.C. area to spell and use the new words in a sentence.
This year, the competition’s 285 spellers ranged in age from 9 to 15 years old and represented all 50 states plus territories and other countries.