The San Diego eighth grader who traveled to the East Coast for the national spelling bee competed in the quarterfinals Wednesday before a multiple-choice vocabulary question took her out of the running.
Duaa Ouznali, 13, from Bright Horizon Academy in Allied Gardens, advanced to the fifth round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, held near Washington D.C., before incorrectly defining the word “temporal,” which is used to describe something that relates to “time as opposed to eternity,” according to Merriam-Webster.
Ouznali tied for 74th place in the overall competition — which began with 243 spellers hailing from around the world, including all 50 U.S. states and as far as Canada, , Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.
During the competition, participants are asked to spell words and answer multiple-choice vocabulary questions, as well as complete a written exam.
In the first round, Ouznali correctly spelled “telegnosis,” which refers to the “knowledge of distant happenings obtained by occult or unknown means,” according to Merriam-Webster.
In round two, she correctly defined “malfeasance,” an act of wrongdoing, before advancing to the written test, which she ed to make her way to the quarterfinals.
And in round four, she correctly spelled “shinplaster,” defined as “a piece of privately issued paper currency.”
Ouznali qualified for the national bee after she won the San Diego County Scripps Regional Spelling Bee in March with the word “droshky,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “any of various 2- or 4-wheeled carriages used especially in Russia.”
The national spelling bee continued on Wednesday evening with the semifinals, and about a dozen spellers will compete in the finals on Thursday.
