April 8 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Jenny Brown


Winner Jenny Brown with host Jen and 2nd runner-up Paul (runner-up M. G. Duke not pictured).

In round one, in which contestants are given three words that they must use correctly in a single sentence, our two child competitors, Ryo and Ayumu, gave us, "My mother is a murderous warlock who is sometimes intellectual" and "My brother is a rhythmic nuisance, and that's really tardy."  And from one of our adult contestants: "I went to visit my grandmother, who was looking really oblique because her bones were ameliorating, as she was suffering from a bad case of antithesis."

In round two, contestants were given a list of three words (one of them made up) and two definitions, and asked to match the words with the definitions.  For example:

THE WORDS:

ceruminous
apious
susurrant

One of these words means "WHISPERING." One means "EARWAXY." Which is which? (Answer at bottom).

In the third round, we tried a new challenge called SYNONYM ANTONYM TRUE FALSE: contestants were given thirty seconds to answer as many questions as possible with only the answers synonym, antonym, true,or false. Most contestants were able to answer between 3 and 7 of these within 30 seconds. Here is a sample (imagine you and me speeding through these as fast as possible -- answers are below):

lachrymose ebullient

bastinado is a form of torture

reticent taciturn

pastime has two t’s in it

the plural of neurosis is neuroses

gammon is a meat

withdrawal contains two a’s

ingenuous candid

deciduous trees do not shed their leaves

Jenny Brown led the pack, with 8 correct in the final round and 18 points overall!

Click here for more photos.

Come on out next Wednesday, April 15, for Geography!

(Answers: Ceruminous is earwaxy; apious is made up; susurrant is whispering.  ANT, TRUE, SYN, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, SYN, FALSE. Obviously, the spelling-related ones are pretty obvious when you're reading them, but much more challenging when read aloud).