The only person in last year's championship finals to return to the Bee this year, New York eighth grader Arvind Mahankali (Speller 163), is through the second round. He correctly spelled "euphemism," a polite, tactful, or less explicit term used to avoid the direct naming of an unpleasant, painful, or frightening reality.
Here was his sentence: Robert spent the afternoon searching for a euphemism for "bankrupt on mortgage-backed securities" before reporting to the Board of Directors.
Arvind finished ninth in 2010 and third in both 2011 and 2012. All of the other 2012 finalists were in eighth grade, the last year of eligibility for the Bee.