Adults will be under the spotlight trying to spell obscure words for the Adult Spelling Bee Monday night. Debbie Burdette, executive director of the Certified Literate Community Program, said the free event will feature about 10 three-person adult teams.

“They come up to the microphone, and they’re given a word. They take turns spelling the word, but they have about 10 or 20 seconds between them to look at the word, to compare what they think the word is spelled and then one of them walks up to the microphone and spells the word,” Burdette said. “So it’s not just one person, it’s a team of three. You have two other people you can depend on to help you spell the word.”

Teams can also come in costumes relating to their names, such as last year’s winning team, Calumet Bank, as the Word Nerds and dressing up like nerds, Burdette said.

“Sometimes they get really into it and sometimes they just show up,” she said.

The event will also feature a special literacy award presentation in honor of holding the spelling bee for 20 years.

Words used last year included mugwump, lackadaisical, barbiturate, reminiscent and idiosyncrasy, according to Burdette.

“I think it’s a good thing for families, especially for children to come and see that adults are still long learners, and we’re still learning new words, and we’re using our brains instead of spellcheck,” she said.

Burdette said spelling bees are important to show that people shouldn’t rely on spell check.

“I don’t think we have really have spelling tests or spelling that much in our schools anymore,” Burdette said.

The spelling bee will be held at Callaway Conference Center at West Georgia Tech at 7 p.m.