The words started out simple — virus, hornet and churn, for example — but soon evolved into terminology only a dictionary could love.

"Believe me, by the end you will not know what these words mean," said wordmaster Katie O'Toole, WPSX-TV writer and co-host of the public television show What's In the News.

Her statement proved true last night when 14 teams from the State College area gathered at the South Hills School of Business and Technology to compete in the Mid-State Literacy Council's Third Annual Corporate Spelling Bee. Each team of three people was sponsored by a local business.

The money raised by the spelling bee will go to helping promote literacy and adult education in Centre and Clearfield counties.

The teams received warm applause from the crowd as their name and sponsor was announced. Holding a pad of paper and pencil, they walked to the center of the room and prepared to try and write out any difficult words.

At first the teams smiled and quietly conferred among themselves before spitting out the answers.

"Joyous. J-O-Y-O-U-S. Joyous," the team answered.

Each participating team was given one chance to incorrectly spell a word. The second time they made a mistake, they were eliminated from the competition.

"We're going to start off with some not-hard-to-spell words. This is to create a false sense of security," O'Toole said.

True to the prediction, tension mounted as the rounds progressed. Soon the words became more difficult — corduroy, ascertained and competency — and the eliminations began.

Pi Beta Phi, a Penn State sorority that helped at the event by giving out food and drinks to the spectators and participants, also entered a group of experienced spellers in the competition. The sorority helps the Mid-State Literacy Council by collecting food for the needy.

All three girls had participated in similar spelling competitions during school. One member of the team, Julia Werner (senior-finance), even competed in a spelling bee on the national level.

Although experienced, the Pi Beta Phi team did not go as far into the competition as they wanted. They missed their first word, "solder" in the third round when their time to answer expired.

"We were ready to spell it and we timed out," Werner said.

Pi Beta Phi was eliminated during the fourth round after struggling to spell the word "bouillon."

"I was a little disappointed," Werner said, adding she understood the competition, "there are other people who are seasoned veterans."

In the later rounds of the competition, the language became exceedingly difficult, with words like maudlin, funambulist and sarsaparilla.

After being presented the word to spell, often times the competitors would scratch their heads and assume puzzled looks.

The State College Senior Citizens, the defending champions from the previous year, were stumped by their word, "eclogue." It means a pastoral poem, usually in the form of a dialogue between shepherds.

The competition came down to a sudden death bout between the top three teams, ending when only one team, Spellbound, sponsored by Foxdale Village, could correctly spell the obscure word " nephritic."