Lyndon speller has been working on his definitions for national spelling bee

Alexander Ottens got his first taste of what the competition for the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee might be like when he took the 50-question online test on spelling and definitions in April.

“There were some words that were really easy,” said the 14-year-old from Lyndon. “And some I didn’t know.”

The bee does not use that test to rank competitors, but rather, to establish the word lists used in the competition.

[ Check out: ABCs of the national spelling bee ]

Ottens won the Regional Office of Education 47 qualifying spelling bee in March. An eighth-grader, it was his first victory.

The Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico school he attends threw him a sendoff on Thursday. All his friends wished him good luck, he said.

He left with family members, who used the trip to do some sightseeing, including visiting Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and the Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland.

During the visit to Gettysburg, he was most impressed by the size of the Pennsylvania Memorial.

“It was massive,” Ottens said.

Massive could also describe the task ahead: Facing 231 spellers, 49 of whom have been here before.

The opening ceremony for this 95th edition of the bee was held Monday evening at National Harbor, Maryland.

On Tuesday, the first two rounds of the preliminaries start at 9 a.m. As speller No. 65, Ottens will be in the first group.

In these early rounds, knowing definitions of words counts, too. The organizers want the competitors to know more than the rote spelling of words. Spellers will get 30 seconds to answer a multiple-choice question about the definition.

In each of the last two years, word-meaning rounds have knocked out 28 competitors.

“Spelling? I’m pretty confident,” said Ottens. “Need to know a definition? That’s a little less confidence.”

Ottens said he’s stuck to his nightly routine: devoting an hour of review with his father in preparation for the competition.

The third round will be at 4:25 p.m. Tuesday. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be Wednesday and the championship round will be Thursday.

How to watch

Early rounds through the semifinals will streamed be on ION Plus, Bounce XL and spellingbee.com. The semifinal broadcast will be on ION and Bounce at 8 p.m. May 31.

Finals will be broadcast live on ION and Bounce at 8 p.m. June 1.

Other Scripps networks Defy TV, Grit, ION Mystery and Laff will show the semis and finals.

Visit spellingbee.com/watch and enter your ZIP code for how to watch in your area.