‘Secret sauce' behind national spelling bee is mixed by a UC Berkeley student

San Francisco Chronicle​

25-05-2025

Hundreds of logolept tanquams will compete against hindermates this week in the famous Scripps tournament of orthography.
Put another way, 243 brainy young students are about to face off in the national spelling bee, which runs Tuesday through Thursday.
However you say it, the kids will be spelling and misspelling a lot of complicated words. And someone has to choose all of the lexical ammunition that will make or break the would-be champions.
'I'm the national word list coordinator,' said Frank Cahill, 27, who is also a UC Berkeley doctoral student in comparative literature.
His spelling bee work is highly secretive. Cahill won't even say how many people are on the panel he oversees, which he calls a 'small team.' They work together for a full year ahead of the competition, not only curating the official cornucopia of words to be spelled, but also inventing the sentences that spellers may ask to hear before they venture an answer.
And no, Cahill won't say how many words he and the team vet and approve. With a $50,000 grand prize at stake, no leakage — even minimal efflux that could lead to more serious exudation — can be allowed.
Part of Cahill's role is to preserve an element of surprise during the competition.
During the bee, for example, he pays close attention to how the spellers are doing: Are the words lobbed at them too easy? Too challenging? If so, Cahill might suggest that the judges skip to a more or less difficult section of the word list he and his team have provided.
'What makes the spelling bee such good TV is that anything can happen,' said Cahill, whose modest demeanor belied his puissant position as he chatted with a reporter in a dusty upstairs library on campus, a room fittingly redolent of old books and beloved words. 'One lapse — one double letter — and you're eliminated.'
Cahill knows this all too well.
The year is 2012. Cahill, a 14-year-old competitor from Colorado, is one of seven spellers remaining on the national stage, having correctly spelled 'dedans,' meaning spectators at a tennis match. Now he is up again.
His word, pronounced clearly for him, is from the Middle English and means tadpole. He spells: 'p-o-r-w-i-g-g-l-e.'
Porwigle, as Cahill and the world quickly learned, has but one 'g.'
Cahill lost the competition. But he gained a love of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, whose gifts, he said, include helping children around the world develop a critical balance 'of nerves and poise.'
And ethics, he added. 'Part of being a good citizen is speaking precisely. Understanding the nuances of the words you use and their effects. Having a robust vocabulary so you can say exactly what you mean — and understand what others say, and what they mean. Those are necessary civics skills.'
Today, Cahill's academic interests lie in the interplay among classical Japanese, ancient Greek and Latin and modern British literature. His dissertation has yet to be written or titled, but expect it all to be explained when that happens.
The allure of language and its evolution came to Cahill not only from his mother, a former English literature major at Northwestern University, but also from the spelling bee.
He has worked with Scripps since 2019, first as a volunteer and then as a year-round contractor.
National word list coordinator is a new role for Scripps, and in that position Cahill contributes many of the bee's official words. He declined to reveal any of them or even how many years must pass before a word can be reused for the bee. The whole list changes every year.
'This is secret sauce territory,' he said.
What he can reveal: He and his team, with full-time staff, proof the final word list for mistakes. They ensure definitions are 'faithful to the dictionary,' which is Merriam-Webster Unabridged. They verify pronunciation with the bee's official pronouncers. And they substantiate the etymology of every word.
Then there are the sentences. Spellers commonly ask how a word is used. So at least one sentence for every word must be at the ready. That's a lot of words and a lot of sentences.
Honey, I'm going to the eisteddfod after dinner tonight!
A reporter came up with that one after Cahill said that eisteddfod, a Welsh singing or poetry competition, was one of his two favorite words (neither of which is on the list this year, spellers). He likes it because, as a Welsh word, it is uncommon, fun to say and provides 'a window into another world.'
Yet that sentence turned out to be an example of what not to do if you are going to offer it to the spelling bee. Making up sentences out of thin air is verboten, explained the national word list coordinator.
'You need to do research,' said Cahill, who first imagines a scene for each word. 'Do eisteddfods (alternatively, eisteddfodau) happen at night? Maybe someone isn't going to just watch the competition but perform in it. That would add specificity.'
Then Cahill does what everyone does when they need more information. He turns to Wikipedia. He pokes around online.
'I do this for every word. Some are easy. But something I really love is bringing up historical specificity to the sentence, because ultimately, the bee is a pedagogical program,' he said. 'We want to teach young people.'
The youngest speller this year is 8 and in the third grade. The oldest are 14, and there are 72 of them. Contrary to a popular belief about the avid wordsmiths in the national spelling bee, most are not homeschooled.
Just six of this year's 243 kids are taught at home, while 170 attend public school.
Until this year, Cahill's many tasks — including the cat-herding role of organizing online meetings of the Word Panel — had been spread out among its members, said Corrie Loeffler, executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
But having Cahill as coordinator has already become essential, she said.
'Frank brings a powerful mix of passion and precision to this role,' said Loeffler, who credited him with adding 'a distinct humanity' to the job.
Evidence of that might be found in Cahill's other favorite word.
'I love pogonotomy,' he said.
Shaving.
'It's a word for such a common thing.'
Like that thing everyone does when they put letters together to come up with a greater meaning.
This year's Orthography Bee will run May 27 to 29 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.
California has 20 competitors, including three Bay Area spellers. They are Aren Lee, 13, Aiden Meng, 12, and Rithvi Balajee, 12, all from Danville.