Faizan Zaki has seized the title of best speller in the English language at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

A South Florida speller made it to the top 20 in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

There are times when the Scripps National Spelling Bee transforms into a geography bee.

Two South Florida students have advanced to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The best young spellers in the English language are competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

Bruhat Soma was unbeatable before he arrived at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and neither the dictionary, nor his competitors, nor a lightning-round tiebreaker challenged him on the way to victory.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee had its toughest day of competition with the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

A four-letter word sent Shradha Rachamreddy to a third-place finish in last year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Two South Florida students have advanced to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Since 1999, 28 of the last 34 Scripps National Spelling Bee champions have been Indian American.

Dev Shah is the champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is down to 11 finalists, many of whom flash their knowledge onstage by asking questions even though they know the answers.

A super speller from South Florida made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The middle school-age spellers who make it to the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee spend years studying roots and language patterns and poring over the dictionary in order to give themselves a chance to be crowned bee champion.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee has its third executive director in the past two years.

Harini Logan has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, defeating Vikram Raju in the bee's first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker.

A speller has been reinstated into the Scripps National Spelling Bee field after successfully appealing that he was denied relevant root information about a word.

An onstage vocabulary round introduced a new element of randomness into the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee's preliminary rounds are much tougher and packed with drama this year.

Zaila Avant-garde of Harvey, Louisiana, wins Scripps National Spelling Bee, becoming first African-American champion.

One eighth-grader competing in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling bee has earned more recognition for her athletic prowess than for her mastery of the dictionary.

Competitors in the Scripps National Spelling Bee got lessons in patience and perseverance after last year's bee was canceled because of the pandemic.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is undergoing a major overhaul to ensure it can identify a single champion.

FILE - In this May 28, 2019 file photo, the Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy sits in front of competitors in Oxon Hill, Md. Breaking from a tradition of being led by former contestants, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has hired a nonprofit leader with no history in the competition as its executive director, signaling a new era for the nearly century-old showcase for the top spellers in the English language. Cincinnati-based Scripps announced Monday, March 1, 2021, that J. Michael Durnil will take over immediately as bee director. Cincinnati-based Scripps announced Monday that J. Michael Durnil will take over immediately as bee director. The bee has strong minority participation, but one minority in particular — Indian-Americans — has dominated the competition for the past two decades.

The upstart ex-spellers who launched an online spelling bee to fill the void left by the canceled Scripps National Spelling Bee had little trouble running an efficient, and sufficiently challenging, competition. When the two other remaining spellers misspelled words back to back before his turn, victory in the closest thing to a national spelling bee in this pandemic-disrupted year was his for the taking. The National Spelling Bee has always been limited to kids in middle and elementary schools, which means Navneeth and six other finalists in the SpellPundit bee will be too old to compete next year. This was also the end of the line for Simone Kaplan, the charismatic runner-up in last year's unusual Scripps bee, which ended in an eight-way tie for first place. Nidhi Achanta, who tied for second in the SpellPundit bee, is also in eighth grade, but the other runner-up, Harini Logan, is a poised sixth-grader who ought to be formidable when the Scripps bee returns.

Like dozens of other veteran spellers in their final year of eligibility, Anson Cook had big plans for this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee, which was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The SpellPundit bee, with spellers competing from their homes over Zoom, concludes Thursday night, the same time the Scripps winner would have been decided. The champion receives $2,500, a pittance compared to the National Spelling Bees first prize of $50,000, but worth a middle-schoolers time and effort all the same. Most of the spellers who would have been favorites at the national bee quickly signed up, including the top three still-eligible finishers from last year. Yes, eight: Last year's Scripps bee ended in an eight-way tie when organizers ran out of words difficult enough to challenge the best spellers.

In recent years, an international team of linguists partnered with Merriam-Webster to analyze a decade’s worth of words.