Can You Spell These 11 Words That Once Won The Scripps National Spelling Bee?

Are you watching the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee? If not, you can tune in live on Walt Disney Co DIS ESPN 3 Thursday for the Finals. Part 1 begins at 10 a.m. ET, and Part 2 is slotted for 8:30 p.m. See Also: 7 Best-Selling Singles From The Beatles Wall Street's Charging Bull, Fearless Girl, Peeing Dog Scene Conflates Distinct Movements

The competition brings together students from across the country with the purpose of helping students "improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives."

The 2016 competition saw the introduction of Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN Kindle technology and products which was distributed to the nearly 11 million participating students.

In honor of the spelling bee, here is a look at 11 of some of the more challenging words that crowned spelling champions.

• Nihar Janga won the 2016 competition after spelling "gesellschaft" — social relations based on impersonal ties, as duty to a society or organization.
• Sukanya Roy won the 2011 competition after spelling "cymotrichous" — having wavy hair.
• Kavya Shivashankar won the 2009 competition by spelling "Laodicean" — a person with a halfhearted attitude toward religion or politics."
• Anurag Kashyap won the 2005 competition after spelling "appoggiatura" — a grace note performed before a note of the melody and falling on the beat.
• Sean Conley won the 2001 competition after spelling "succedaneum" — a substitute, especially for a medicine or drug.
• Wendy Guey won the 1996 competition after spelling "vivisepulture" — the act or practice of burying alive.
• Stephanie Petit won the 1987 competition after spelling "staphylococci" — a genus of Gram-positive bacteria.
• Blake Giddens won the 1983 competition after spelling "Purim" — a holiday which commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia.
• William Kerek won the 1964 competition after spelling "sycophant" — a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage.
• Sandra Sloss won the 1955 competition after spelling "crustaceology" — the branch of zoology that studies crustaceans.
• Frank Neuhauser won the first ever competition in 1925 after spelling "gladiolus" —a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family.