Calif. speller barely misses cut for bee quarterfinals

WASHINGTON, May 29 - Bethany Strom, 12, of Red Bluff, Calif., was eliminated after Round 2 of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday.

The word that knocked her out of the competition was "nomenclative," which she spelled with a "u" instead of an "e" in the middle. Nomenclative is an adjective that means the act of naming.

"We missed it by one letter," said Chuck Strom, Bethany's father.