Amber Born (Speller 115) has a knack for humor.
"Is the sentence funny?" the Massachusetts eighth grader asked pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly when she got her word, "Lethean."
He let her decide for herself.
"Jessica blamed her low test score on her history teacher's practically Lethean voice, which made it next to impossible to retain anything he was saying," Dr. Bailly read.
Amber approved. She spelled it correctly.
Earlier, in the Semifinals, she asked Dr. Bailly a favor.
"Please give me something I know," she said.
"I suspect it's hard not to," Dr. Bailly replied.
She correctly spelled "malacophilous," a word that means "adapted to pollination by snail."
"Uh, yeah," Amber said. "I don't know how that's possible, but OK."
