National Spelling Bee: Could you spell these 10 winning business words?

4. Sycophant

Jacquelun Martin/AP
Spellers leave the stage during a break in competition at the National Spelling Bee in Oxon Hill, Md., Wednesday, May 30, 2012.

Year: 1964

 

Champion: William Kerek (Akron, Ohio)

 

Definition: (n.) 1) A person who uses compliments or flattery to gain self-serving favor or advantage from another. 2) A person who seeks to gain through the powerful or influential.

 

Used in a Business page sentence: If that major financial firm hadn’t been full of sycophants, maybe the CEO wouldn’t have run it into the ground [opinion blog].

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