The ABCs of the Scripps National Spelling Bee

The Scripps National Spelling Bee starts next week in National Harbor, Maryland, which is near Washington, D.C. The winner of the Regional Office of Education 47 qualifier is one of the 14 Illinoisans in the field.

Here’s the ABCs on this annual competition of grade-school spellers, which will meet in the finals at Thursday evening (8 p.m. eastern).

A — Alexander Ottens, the 14-year-old from Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico 6-12 campus. The eighth-grader is making his first appearance at nationals.

B — Bounce, which along with ION, will broadcast the semifinals on Wednesday and the finals on Thursday. Earlier rounds will be streamed live on ION Plus, Bounce XL and spellingbee.com. Channels in the Scripps family of networks will also air portions of the competition, including Defy TV, Grit, ION Mystery and Laff.

C — Cincinnati. That’s where the Scripps Cup championship trophy comes from. It’s designed by Rookwood Pottery.

D — Doctors of pronouciation. Jacques Bailly has been the official pronouncer since 2003. He’s was the champ in 1980 and is now associate professor of classics at University of Vermont. Brian Sietsema, a priest of the Greek Orthordox Archdiocese of America has been the associated pronouncer since 2003. He was the pronounciation editor for Merriam-Webster from 1990 to 1998.

E — Emily Demlow. At 14, the Battle Creek, Michigan speller is the eldest competitor in the field, eight days older than Juan Rondeau of Miami.

F — Frank Neuhauser was the first winner, and 11 year old from Louisville. He got a visit from President Calvin Coolidge.

G — Grade level. There are 100 eighth-graders, 62 seventh-graders, 34 sixth-graders, five fourth-graders and a third-grader.

H — Harini Logan, the first to win under the spell-off rules in 2022. She had 22 words correct in 90 seconds. She’s a ninth-grader in San Antonio, Texas.

I — Illinois. The Land of Lincoln has had two champions, Ward Randall of White Hall in 1931 and Balu Natarajan of Chicago in 1985.

J — Jody-Ann Maxwell of Jamaica was the first Black winner in 1998.

K — For Kirsten and for Kapu. The top returning finalists are Kirsten Tiffany Santos of Houston and Surya Kapu of Salt Lake City. Both tied for fifth last year.

L — Luge. Shortest winning word in 1984.

M — Merriam-Webster. The official dictionary.

N — Non-binary. Two competitors this year identify their gender as such. There are 94 girls, 134 boys and 1 speller who preferfed not to answer.

O — Octochamps. In 2019 eight contestants were declared co-winners.

P — Paul Loeffler, TV analysis for the bee since 2006. He’s a former national competitor and the older brother of the bee’s executive director, Corrie Loeffler.

Q — Questions. Spellers can only ask the pronouncer these things: definition, part of speech, use the word in a sentence, language(s) of origin, alternate pronounciations, root of the word, and to repeat the word.

R — Relatives. There are 22 contestants this year that have had relatives compete in previous nationals.

S — Scherenschnitte. The longest winning word from 2015.

T — Texas. The state with the most champions at 16.

U — U.S. Island of Guam. That’s the home of Lance Sanches, speller No. 48, who has the farthest distance to travel, more than 7,900 miles.

V — Vokoti, Akash. The San Angelo, Texas speller is competing for a record sixth time. There are 14 other spellers who are in the field for a third time.

W — Written test. All spellers complete a 50-question online test of spelling and word meaning in April. The results are used in establishing the word list.

X — Xanthosis. Winning word in 1995 for Justin Tyler Carroll of Memphis.

Y — Youngest. Vehaan Kapil, third-grader from Arden Hills, Minnesota, is the youngest of the four 9-year-olds in the field. (Youngest all time was Edith Fuller, who was 6 in 2017).

Z — Zaila Avant-garde of New Orleans was the first Black American winner in 2021. She moved to Washington, D.C. to continue with her basketball career. She is the author of two books.