National Spelling Bee finals: nine finalists compete for orthographic glory – live buildup

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New Jersey’s Harini Murali is next. Her first test is bibliognost, a noun meaning one that has comprehensive knowledge of books. No problems there. Brian Liu of Great Neck, New York, follows. His opener is infula and he wastes little time spelling it correctly. Aishwarya Kallakuri idempotent, which means relating to or being a mathematical quantity which when applied to itself under a given binary operation (such as multiplication) equals itself. She nails it. Akshaj Somisetty has no issue spelling gomphosis. It’s a blistering eight-for-eight out of the gate. Next is Faizan Zaki, last year’s runner-up, who will try to make it the first perfect opening round of the finals in six years … and he does! The word is Politique and he drills it confidently. What a start!

Aishwarya Kallakuri, 14, of Charlotte, North Carolina, spells idempotent correctly on Thursday night. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

It’s time! The nine finalists have taken the stage. Esha Marupudi is first and she nails isopag, an equiglacial line on a map or chart that connects the points where ice is present for approximately the same number of days in winter. Next up is Oliver Halkett and he confidently spells corbicula. Sarvadnya Kadam has no problems with dolabrate. Now it’s Sarv Dharavane, the 11-year-old who is the youngest of the nine finalists. His word is ethology, defined as the scientific and objective study of animal behavior especially under natural conditions. After a few questions for head pronouncer Dr Jacques Bailly, he coolly drills it. Four up, four down: a roaring start heading into the first commercial break.

Oliver Halkett, 13, of Los Angeles, reacts after spelling corbicula correctly on Thursday night. Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

The majority of entrants in the National Spelling Bee are from the US, hailing from all 50 states. But some have traveled farther for the competition. Alleena Villaluz traveled some 7,800 miles from Saipan, a US commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands roughly 133 miles (by air) from Guam. This was her second consecutive Bee. Other spellers came from Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait, Nigeria, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Cyleane Equra Ama Quansah, 11, of Accra, Ghana, is one of 13 competitors in the field of 243 from outside the United States. Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Scott Remer

What’s the vibe inside the room? Professional spelling bee tutor and Guardian contributor Scott Remer checks in from the National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland:

The energy in the room is building as the finalists take the stage. The Marine Band has just played the national anthem and presented the colors, and moments ago the crowd erupted in applause for more than 40 former national champions gathered for the Bee’s centennial celebration – ranging from winners of the 1960s to 2023 champion (and my former student), Dev Shah, and last year’s winner, Bruhat Soma.

Although this year’s field is smaller than usual, with nine finalists instead of the standard 12, it’s a formidable group. Expect a fiercely contested finals tonight.

This year the National Spelling Bee is celebrating its 100th anniversary, though it’s only the 97th staging as it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 due to the second world war and in 2020 for Covid. The first was held in 1925 with just nine contestants, with Kentucky’s Frank Neuhauser taking home the title by correctly spelling gladiolus, a flower he had raised as a boy. He took home $500 in gold pieces for his trouble. Other tricky championship-winning words down the years include esquamulose (1962), xanthosis (1995), succedaneum (2001) and appoggiatura (2005).

Ever wonder how you’d match up against the champions of the past. Here’s your chance. Take our quiz to see if you can spell a sampling of the championship-winning words from previous bees.

There’s plenty at stake for the nine spellers who have made it this far. The last girl or boy standing will receive: a $50,000 cash prize, a commemorative medal and the Scripps Cup trophy (from Scripps); $2,500 cash and a reference library (from Merriam-Webster); a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium (from Encyclopædia Britannica), in addition to various other academic bits and bobs.

The runner-up will receive $25,000, with cash prizes for third ($15,000), fourth ($10,000), fifth ($5,000) and sixth places ($2,500). The seventh-, eighth- and ninth-place finishers will go home with a cool $2,000 apiece. Additionally, all nine finalists will be awarded commemorative medals.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy is displayed at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center on Thursday night. Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

If two or more spellers tie for first, each will receive $50,000. That’s not a remote possibility, at least not anymore. When Sriram J Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe shared the title in 2014, it was the first time the National Spelling Bee had co-champions since 1962. Then Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam fought to a memorable stalemate in 2015, prompting officials to install rule changes – a longer championship round with more difficult words – in an effort to ensure singular champions moving forward, only for Jairam Hathwar and Nihar Janga to fight to a third straight tie in 2016. Then, in 2019, an unprecedented eight spellers tied for the title when organizers ran out of words considered challenging enough for the field. That prompted a major overhaul for 2021 including the addition of vocabulary questions and a lightning-round tiebreaker. Last year’s finals, indeed, came down to a “spell-off”.

Why isn’t the Spelling Bee on ESPN anymore?

Over nearly three decades the Spelling Bee cultivated something of a cult following on ESPN. But this marks the fourth year since the sports cabler’s agreement with the EW Scripps Company expired and the Ohio-based media firm decided to move the production in-house to Ion Television, one of the national broadcast networks it owns. At the time of the move, organizers claimed the timing of the NBA finals created problematic scheduling and resource conflicts with ESPN, which had carried it for 27 straight years (starting in 1994).

It’s been a bit of a downer for longtime fans of ESPN’s consistently robust coverage, which in later years included a special Play-Along simulcast on ESPN3 that featured a second-screen, multiple-choice version allowing viewers to compete along with the spellers. Some have complained Ion is more difficult to find, but the ratings have only trended in the right direction since its 2022 debut on the network.

The Spelling Bee has always been one of the more photogenic events on the US sports calendar. This year has been no exception. Here’s a look at some of the best shots from the 2025 contest (so far).

Raian Timur, 10, of Greenwood, Indiana, yawns while awaiting his turn during Tuesday’s preliminaries. Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

All eyes are on Faizan Zaki tonight he chases a redemption that’s proven rare on spelling’s biggest stage. The 13-year-old from Dallas is looking to win the Bee after finishing as the runner-up the year before, something that’s only happened once in the past 44 years.

It’s a daunting task. Out of 96 Bees held over the past century, only four second-place finishers have come back to win – and only one has done it since the early 1980s. That was Sean Conley, who lost in 2000 and triumphed in 2001. Now, Zaki hopes to join that elite company.

But if he’s feeling the weight of history, he doesn’t show it.

With a black hoodie pulled over his shaggy hair and a laid-back swagger that’s all his own, Zaki has breezed through the early rounds of this year’s competition. He was the only speller to earn a perfect score on the written spelling and vocabulary exam that determined the quarterfinalists, a strong signal that last year’s heartbreak didn’t shake his confidence.

Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, Texas spells a word in the semi-finals of the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Then came Wednesday’s quarter-final and semi-final stages, where Zaki made it look almost casual. He strolled to the microphone round after round, rattling off spellings with calm precision and his signature flair: hands emerging from his hoodie pouch to “type” each letter in the air as he said them aloud. It’s equal parts technique and trademark.

His only wobble came late, on the word coterell, a tricky entry that earned him a brief pause and a visible sigh of relief after he nailed it. The fist pump that followed said it all: he’s back and he’s coming for everything.

“It was just very relieving,” Zaki said yesterday after clinching his spot in tonight’s finals. “I have a lot of expectations put on me, so I’m just excited that I’m going to the finals again.”

Expectations indeed. After last year’s thrilling but painful loss in a spell-off tiebreaker with Bruhat Soma, Zaki has become something of a fan favorite. And while his mastery of language roots, etymology and wordplay is undeniable, history suggests he’s still the underdog. That’s fine by him.

“Hopefully I can get it done,” he said. “Especially back home, all of my friends, they tell me that I need to win this year.”

A look at tonight's nine finalists

Well, here we are. It’s all happening. The championship finals of the 97th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee are upon us. The eyes of the English-language orthographic world are trained on the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, where spelling’s biggest night is a little more than an hour away from popping off.

More than 11m students, ranging in age from six to 14, participated in this year’s competition at one stage or another. Of those, 243 earned a trip to (just outside) the nation’s capital by winning spelling bees organized by their local sponsors, typically newspapers, universities or non-profits. All roads have led to tonight: the Super Bowl for smart kids. And it all gets started at 8pm ET.

That elite field of 243 invitees was narrowed down to 99 during Tuesday’s preliminary spelling and vocabulary rounds. Three quarter-final rounds on Wednesday morning narrowed the field to 57 semi-finalists with only nine surviving the afternoon semi-finals to reach tonight’s nationally televised finale.

The nonet represents the best of the best. Here’s who they are.

Speller No 4, Esha Marupudi
Age 13, 7th grade
Sponsor: Arizona Educational Foundation (Phoenix, Arizona)
School: BASIS Chandler
Fun fact: Esha writes lyrics and composes her own songs.

Speller No 20, Oliver Halkett
Age 13, 7th grade
Sponsor: Los Angeles County Office of Education (Los Angeles, California)
School: Mirman School
Fun fact: Oliver received a National History Day honorable mention for his essay on the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

Speller No 30, Sarvadnya Kadam
Age 14, 8th grade
Sponsor: Tulare County Office of Education (Visalia, California)
School: Oak Grove Elementary School
Fun fact: Sarvadnya speaks Marathi, Hindi and English and wants to learn Sanskrit after he retires from spelling.

Speller No 53, Sarv Dharavane
Age 11, 5th grade
Sponsor: Georgia Association of Educators (Tucker, Georgia)
School: Austin Elementary School
Fun fact: Sarv enjoys folding origami and has decided he will fold 1,000 paper cranes.

Speller No 136, Harini Murali
Age 13, 8th grade
Sponsor: SNSB Region Three Bee (Edison, New Jersey)
School: Woodrow Wilson Middle School
Fun fact: Harini has been learning Carnatic music, an Indian classical style, since she was 6.

Speller No 144, Brian Liu
Age 13, 8th grade
Sponsor: SNSB Region Four Bee (Great Neck, New York)
School: Great Neck North Middle School
Fun fact: Brian’s pet chinchillas are named Obsidian and Stormy for their colors and personalities.

Speller No 156, Aishwarya Kallakuri
Age 14, 8th grade
Sponsor: Carolina Panthers (Charlotte, North Carolina)
School: Valor Preparatory Academy
Fun fact: Aishwarya is really interested in psychology theory, especially the work of Carl Jung.

Speller No 182, Akshaj Somisetty
Age 13, 8th grade
Sponsor: Pennon Education (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)
School: Mountain View Middle School
Fun fact: Akshaj has recently started collecting different currencies and has collected money from over 10 countries already.

Speller No 207, Faizan Zaki
Age 13, 7th grade
Sponsor: Dallas Sports Commission (Dallas, Texas)
School: CM Rice Middle School
Fun fact: Faizan can speed-solve a Rubik’s Cube in about 30 seconds.

Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here is a lookahead to tonight’s finals.

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