The best young spellers in the English language are set to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. The bee is now held just outside the nation’s capital, at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River in Oxon Hill, Maryland. It starts Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.
This will be the 97th bee; it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s champion will be the 110th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.
The bee is broadcast and streamed on channels and platforms owned by Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company.
— Tuesday, May 27: Preliminary rounds streamed on Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. EDT.
— Wednesday, May 28: Quarterfinals streamed on Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Semifinals streamed on Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Semifinals broadcast on ION on tape-delay from 8-10 p.m.
— Thursday, May 29: Finals broadcast on ION from 8-10 p.m.
The bee features 243 spellers, with at least one from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia; as well as spellers from U.S. territories Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands; and from Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.
Faizan Zaki, last year’s runner-up, is back after losing to Bruhat Soma in a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a “spell-off.” He’s a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Allen, Texas. If he falls short again, he would have one more year of eligibility. He has won several online bees that top spellers compete in as preparation, including the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee and the South Asian Spelling Bee.
Other possible contenders:
— Aishwarya Kallakuri, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Concord, North Carolina, and winner of the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee.
— Avinav Prem Anand, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Columbus, Ohio, who finished second to Faizan in the Words of Wisdom bee.
— Vedanth Raju, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Aurora, Colorado, and the younger brother of 2022 runner-up Vikram Raju.
Spellers qualify by advancing through regional bees hosted by sponsors around the country. In order to compete, spellers must not have advanced beyond the eighth grade or be older than 15.
Spellers must get through two preliminary rounds, quizzing them on words from a list provided in advance: one spelling round and one multiple-choice vocabulary round.
Those who make it through the preliminaries sit for a written spelling and vocabulary test, with the top 100 or so finishers advancing to the quarterfinals. The words for the test, and for all subsequent rounds, are taken from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary.
Throughout the quarterfinals and semifinals, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.
About a dozen spellers advance to the finals. When only two spellers remain, Scripps has the option to use a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a “spell-off” to determine the champion. However, Scripps has taken away the requirement that the spell-off begin at a specific time, giving bee judges more discretion to let the competition play out.
The winner receives a custom trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Here are the prize payouts:
— First place: $52,500 in cash, reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, and a $1,000 contribution to a school of the champion’s choice.
— Second place: $25,000.
— Third place: $15,000.
— Fourth place: $10,000.
— Fifth place: $5,000.
— Sixth place: $2,500.
— All other finalists: $2,000.
— National Spelling Bee winners reflect on how it changed their lives
— Scripps National Spelling Bee tweaks its rules to make ‘spell-off’ tiebreaker less likely
— Bruhat Soma wins the National Spelling Bee after a slow night concludes with a sudden tiebreaker
— National Spelling Bee reflects the economic success and cultural impact of immigrants from India
— Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
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Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.