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Long Beach Student Eliminated in National Spelling Bee Finals

A seventh-grader from Long Beach was eliminated Thursday in the seventh round of the 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee, tying for 21st.

Medina Miranda was eliminated when she misspelled orans -- a noun meaning a figure in an attitude of prayer, usually standing, with the elbows close to the sides of the body and with the hands outstretched sideways, palms up -- by adding a U between the O and A.

She will receive $2,000 for advancing to the seventh round.

The Stanford Middle School student began Thursday's competition at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, by correctly spelling polymorphous, an adjective meaning having many forms.

She correctly spelled piedmont, an adjective meaning lying or formed at the base of mountains, in the fifth round, and amphipneustic, an adjective describing amphibians that have both gills and lungs throughout life, in the sixth.

Medina was among 41 spellers who advanced to the finals from the record field of 516 by scoring high enough on multiple-choice test with 13 spelling words and 13 vocabulary questions, and correctly spelling her second-and third-round words.

The finals are limited to a maximum of 50 spellers. Spellers' scores are plotted on a chart beginning at 36. Spellers at each consecutive scoring level are added until no more than 50 spellers have been attained.

Medina correctly spelled nephelognosy, a noun meaning scientific observation of clouds, in Tuesday's second round, and laparotomy, a noun meaning surgical incision of the abdominal wall, in Wednesday's third round. The test is considered the bee's first round.

No speller from Los Angeles County has won the bee.

One Southern Californian is among the 16 spellers remaining in the bee, Aisha Randhawa, a seventh-grader from Corona.

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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