WASHINGTON -- All seven Canadian spellers who remained at the Scripps National Spelling Bee were eliminated from the competition this morning.

When Grace Tsai, of Vancouver, failed to spell the word "cinerea," inserting a "y" where the "i" should have been, it marked the end of the line for the Canadians.

Veronica Penny of Hamilton was eliminated on the word etagere, while Saskatoon's Anqi Dong was stumped by the word hooley.

A total of 45 spellers entered Friday's semifinals, including Emilie Lafleur (tonneau) of Montreal, Julie Huttemann (ressaulted) of Kelowna, B.C., Curtis Bogetti (otacariasis) of Kamloops, B.C., and Jessica Zung (accordatura) of Don Mills, Ont.

One by one, the Canadians fell and by the lunch hour 11 spellers had been eliminated.

Twenty-two Canadians, regional winners in the Canwest Canspell National Spelling Bee, arrived in Washington this week to compete at the event.