For five-time spelling champ, winning is as easy as A-B-C

MAT-SU -- Ask Madelin Siedler to spell "success," and she shouldn't have much trouble at all.

Siedler, known to her friends and teachers as Maddie, has just won her fifth school spelling bee at Colony Middle School and maintains a perfect record on the middle school spelling scene, having won school spelling bees in fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and now eighth grade.

Maddie studies on the Forstner, Cyphert, and Warner team at Colony.

"She's a natural English student," said Emily Forstner, Maddie's Language Arts teacher. "She grasps any sort of grammatical spelling instantly."

I've told her many times that she should be an English teacher," continued Forstner. "She knows the subject and loves it."

Though Maddie herself expresses a fondness for writing and literature, her interests are beginning to move into the realm of current events.

"I like the way Mrs. Forstner teaches language arts, but I'm beginning to like U.S. History even more now," she said. "I like learning about what's going on in the world today."

Maddie avidly follows national politics, including the ongoing primary elections.

Last year, Maddie advanced to the third round at the state spelling bee, but was eliminated when she failed to spell the word "shamateurism" correctly, which raises her ire even today.

"My mother just bought the third edition Merriam-Webster dictionary. It's this huge, huge book, and it doesn't even have that word in it," she stated.

"Shamateurism," for reference, describes payments made illegally, especially to competitors in amateur sports.

Maddie has mixed feelings about attending state spelling bees. "It's pretty exciting to compete at the state level, but it's also pretty boring at times," she said. At a state bee, hours can pass before competitors are called upon to spell their first word, inspiring prolonged anxiety in participants. "It's kind of scary when they put you in a big auditorium," said Maddie. "Last year they had it in a smaller ballroom, which wasn't so bad, but this year they're going back to the big auditorium at UAA."

Maddie said her parents are constantly supporting her efforts:

"My mom comes up with all these methods to help me train. They're different every year."

In the past, Maddie's mother has placed sticky notes with spelling bee words around the house to remind her daughter of the proper spelling of words, recorded Maddie spelling words on tape for repeated playback, and spent countless hours sitting and reading complicated words with her as well. The latest strategy involves hiring a private spelling coach who meets with Maddie once a week to go over categorized bee words.

Even when bearing these training measures in mind, however, Maddie's mother, Jeannie, admits that she's not sure where her daughter's amazing spelling ability comes from. She proclaimed that the skill doesn't run in the family.

"Neither her father nor I excel at spelling. Her brother doesn't either," she said.

Maddie's proficiency may instead stem from her love of verbal communication. "Maddie is very interested in language and words, and enjoys learning foreign languages," her mother said.

In this year's bee, Maddie hopes to do better than her previous third-round finishes, knowing that it's her final shot at a big title. "Since it's my last time, I know it's my only chance of getting further," she said. However, her enthusiasm for the upcoming bee is less than total; after five years of stressful competition, she's relieved at the prospect of shelving the dictionary for a while. "At least I won't have to worry about this anymore," she said.

Maddie will be facing off against Timothy Slaufon of Wasilla Middle School and Brittany Maynard of Houston in the statewide bee, among others. Palmer Junior Middle School has not yet held its spelling bee owing to the unusually late April 22 scheduling of the state bee.

Winners at the state meets then travel on to Washington, D.C., where the national spelling bee takes place each year. The national bee is broadcast on ESPN.

Think you know your spelling and definitions? Think again

Is there a blatherskite at your office, or perhaps someone who is querimonious? Can you see through the pogonip out there? Do you understand those sentences, or are they sesquipedalian?

Huh?

Those words and many other obscure ones are part of the selections at the state and national spelling bees, where students compete for gramatical glory.

Many of the words that are part of the contest roster will be obscure to the casual linguist, but they could be the difference between winning and losing. It's a fact that is indubitable (not open to question or doubt).

Below are a few words that are part of this year's competition, as well as the definitions. From A to Z, there isn't an easy one in the bunch.

abstemious -- sparing in eating and drinking.

acclivity -- an ascending slope.

bellipotent -- mighty in war.

blatherskite -- a blustering, talkative and often incompetent person.

campodeiform -- having an elongated and flattened shape.

chasmophyte -- a plant that grows in the crevices of rocks.

dermonecrotic -- relating to or causing the death of skin tissue.

firnification -- the process whereby snow becomes partially compacted and forms the surface part of the glacier.

frigorific -- causing cold.

gnomic -- expressive of moralistic wisdom.

gramineous -- resembling or relating to grass.

illth -- condition of being economically unprosperous or miserable.

indubitable -- not open to question or doubt.

perambulate -- travel over or through especially on foot.

pogonip -- a dense winter fog containing frozen particles that is formed in deep mountain valleys.

quaquaversal -- dipping from a center to all points of the compass.

querimonious -- habitually complaining.

quodlibet -- a subtle or debatable point.

rathskeller -- a restaurant located usually below street level.

sesquipedalian -- given to or characterized by the use of long words.

yttrium -- geography name, a trivlanet metallic element usually included among the rare-earth metals.

zeitgeber -- an environmental agent or event that provides the stimulus for setting or resetting the biological clock of an organism.