He spelled 'clevis' as 'clevice'. In my searches, I find many, many companies that produce 'clevice' devices. It appears that 'clevis' is most correct, but if 'clevice' is acceptable as an industry-wide spelling, shouldn't the judges have accepted it? Before you answer with your knee-jerk "Well, their dictionary is law!" responses, do a little research yourself. Check out the following links, then see if you don't find many others! THEN tell me I have no point if you still think so. Thanks. Oh, yeah, one of the links is from MIT. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5368277...

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsapp/BT/PATC...

http://www.worley.me.uk/aeromodelling/in...

http://web.mit.edu/2.670/OldFiles/Engine...

I see that these links use the word "clevice," but you have to understand the National Spelling Bee participants use Merriam Webster's Third New International Dictionary for their primary resource in spelling. I was among a long list of people who were upset at his loss, although he did spell clevis incorrectly. He did appeal, because his family thought that the last syllable of clevis could be pronounced as 'clevus.' This would not have assisted him in any way though, to spell the last two letters correctly. If, for instance, Samir Patel has spelled the word 'clevice,' clevis, he would have informed the judges right away that the correct spelling was clevis. There are many different ways that people spell words and that makes it difficult for the Scripps National Spelling Bee officials to accept many different variations. That is why they consult the dictionary first.

the correct spelling is "crevice"

I think that the word was pronounced correctly. It doesnt matter what those sites say. The official pronounciation in merriam-webster is all that matters. I wsa at the national bee myself when it happened because i participated in it. I was 108th out of 286. Shoman kasbekar.,