5 things you definitely didn't know about the National Spelling Bee

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It's a sporting event for kids and adults alike, but it doesn't take a ball or a puck to compete.  All it takes is being not just a good speller, but a great one as the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee has begun just outside of the nation’s capital.

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Held at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center  in National Harbor, Md., 285 students from all 50 states, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense schools all over the world are trying to spell many words that would not come up in everyday conversation.

>>Could you pass the National Spelling Bee test?

1. Some of the competitor favorite words include, flibbertigibbet, schadenfreude, tchotchke and of course triskaidekaphobia and onomatopoeia, according to the National Spelling Bee's official site.

2. The competitors range in age from 9 to 15, but the vast majority are between the age of 12 and 14.

3. Three spellers have a brother or sister who have previously won.

4. 117 spellers speak more than one language.

5. Indian Americans have won all but four of the last 15 competitions- including the last seven, The Washington Post reported.  The streak has received much backlash as the newspaper discovered.

Last year, the co-champions SriramHathwar and Ansun Sujoe were the subject of hate on social media. Many of the views, despite the fact the students are American citizens, featured comments that assumed that they were not.

One Twitter post last year, quoted by The Washington Post said "We need an american [sic] to win this spelling bee."