Spellers can ask the pronouncer, Dr. Jacques Bailly, for a whole host of information -- alternate pronunciations, part of speech, definition, sentence and the language of origin.
Many spellers go through a list of the questions. But Donovan Rolle (Speller 35) wanted to make sure he had everything he needed.
"Could I get everything, please?" he asked to laughter after receiving the word "bacciferous."
Dr. Bailly told him the adjective from an originally Latin word, with an English combining form, had no alternate pronunciations. It means "bearing berries."
And the sentence: The caveman assured his date that he knew all the best bacciferous plants in the area.
Donovan, an eighth grader from Washington, D.C. spelled it properly.
