Scripps National Spelling Bee: How Well Does Utah Spell?

Scripps National Spelling Bee

It is tyme for Scripps National Spelling Bea. This is an exciting sesson for spelling. Where skool childrun from all woks of life gather together to show off their spelling skeels.

Utah and Spelling

Ok enough of that. It is spelling bee season, and did you know that Utah is very good at spelling? Utah consistently gets high spelling marks, maybe because the name Utah can be challenging to spell, so we get our practice early. There is evidence that Utah has a particularly high number of places that are complex to spell and that might be part of it too.

Read More: Is this the ‘Hardest to Spell’ Town in Utah?

Reasons Utah Excels at Spells

There are a few totally real and not made-up reasons Utahns are excellent at spelling. See which one you think is on point:

Echo, Echo, Echo

Since Utah is adorned with beautiful mountains and canyons, we are used to the audio phenomenon of the echo. We even have an Echo Canyon in the state. So obviously when children would spell out loud, they would hear their spelling come back to them sort of like checking their work. The echo effect is why Utah children became so proficient (spell that one kid) at spelling.

Pure Survival

We all know that the state was settled by pioneers and when they needed supplies, they would have to run into the general store. Since Utah was such an industrial state, people wouldn't have time to run themselves, so they would write lists of things to be picked up. They had to learn to spell, because if wrote "let us see salt" you would never get your "lettuce and sea salt"

Beehive State

This one is based more in history. The bee in spelling bee is similar to the bee in the beehive state. It is thought to have come from the word "bēn" which meant a favor, it was changed to bee meaning a group working on a single cause like a quilting bee. So with this common meaning beehive state kids were bound to do well on the common goal of spelling at a spelling bee.

Pick the one you like and keep up the preposterously impressive spelling Utah.

If you think we we have some places that are hard to pronounce or spell, check out the list of Texas names below and see if you can guess how to pronounce them.