29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Scripps Spelling Bee 2025 live updates: The nation's top students will compete in the finals
Nine students will face off Thursday on the final night of the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The three-day competition began with 243 spellers from across the United States and other areas, including Canada, Puerto Rico, Nigeria and Kuwait. It is held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in suburban Maryland.
The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time and airs on Ion, and a host of streaming sites.
The word was 'gladiolus,' a type of flower. An 11-year-old boy from Kentucky, who had prepped by copying words from the dictionary into a blank book, spelled it correctly.
And with that, Frank Neuhauser was crowned the champion of the first-ever National Spelling Bee. It was June 17, 1925, and he was among nine spellers who had beaten a field of about 2 million students to compete in Washington.
Participants are dressing the part for the bee, showing up to the competition wearing plenty of black and yellow stripes.
During the semifinals and quarterfinals this week in National Harbor, bumblebee-themed accessories have been spotted on spellers and officials. One participant, 13-year-old Leah Marie Rini, painted her nails in black and yellow stripes.
One week before Faizan Zaki, 13, would don a numbered name tag and ascend the small staircase that leads to the biggest spelling bee stage in the country, he sat on his couch, propped open his computer and began another rapid-fire study session with his coach.
Faizan, who came in second place in the Scripps National Spelling Bee last year and is one of the favorites to win the 2025 contest, is among a growing number of spellers who lean on professional coaching to reach the Bee's upper echelon.
Before he was asked to spell 'elucubrate,' Jacques Bailly had never heard the word.
The then-14-year-old had survived round after round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee when the pronouncer read off the verb, Latin in origin, which means 'to work out or express by studious effort.' Bailly, an eighth-grader from Denver, had 90 seconds. Sweating under the hot glare of the stage lights, he thought through what he knew about Latin linguistics.
Then, he recalled, 'I gave my best guess.'
Vanya Shivashankar made history this week in becoming the first female pronouncer for the national bee.
The 2015 co-champion also has served as an emcee and host for portions of the competition.
'I hope my appointment inspires young spellers, just as I was all those years ago, to fall in love with language and reading, and to BEE the best they can be!,' Shivashankar said in a social media post for the Bee.
Among other pronouncers are Jacques Bailly, Brian Sietsema and Kevin Moch.
