Some of the brightest youngsters in the U.S. will square off on Thursday in the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a mind-boggling test of their mastery of the most obscure, complex and downright tricky words in the English language.
The one-day grand finale is the culmination of a quest that began with regional competitions that narrowed the field to 245 local winners, ages eight to 15. They travelled with their families to a convention centre outside Washington, D.C., for “Bee Week.”
Thursday’s finalists survived three preliminary rounds in which their fellow contestants fell victim to such brain-teasers as “iridochoroiditis” (defined as an inflammation of the eye’s iris), “keratophyre” (a compact porphyritic rock) or “nectocalyx” (a swimming bell of a siphonophore, which is a type of sea creature).
Following a preliminary round, Wednesday morning began with 148 spellers. By the end of the first quarterfinal round, there were 59 left, and 46 of those got through a vocabulary round to reach the semifinals. By the end of the day, eight finalists remained.
Challenged with some of the most difficult and least-used words that English has to offer, many of the young competitors amazed spectators with their ability to conjure up the correct spellings with poise and precision.
Last year, 14-year-old Dev Shah from Largo, Fla., battled through 15 rounds and won the championship with his spelling of the word “psammophile” (a plant or animal that thrives in sandy areas).
The Scripps media group has sponsored the event since 1925, with three years off during the Second World War and one more for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
This year’s event offers a $50,000 US prize to the winner or winners, according to the event’s media guide.
If two or more spellers tie for first place, each will receive $50,000 US. In 2019, eight spellers tied for the title when organizers ran out of words considered challenging enough for the field.
Most competitors are from the United States, coming from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Canada, the Bahamas, Germany and Ghana are also represented this year.
There were three Canadian students in the competition this year. Duncan Grant of Sydney, N.S., and Isaac Brogan of Windsor, Ont., got knocked out in the preliminaries, while Arshan Shahriar of Kitchener, Ont., made it as far as the quarterfinals.