These days, most of us don’t spend much time thinking about spelling. With spell-check and auto-correct tools on our computers, tablets, and smartphones, we’re usually only a click away from knowing the correct spelling of a word, no matter how complex or unfamiliar.
For the talented young people who compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, however, spelling is a way of life. Take this year’s champion. Twelve-year-old Bruhat Soma of Tampa, Florida, was undefeated in spelling bees in eight months before making it to the national stage.
Soma secured the 2024 title in a lightning-round tiebreaker—only the second time this has happened in the history of the competition. The 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee concluded with Soma and the eventual runner-up, Faizan Zaki, also 12, of Allen, Texas, taking part in a spell-off consisting of 30 words in 90 seconds.
Bruhat revealed that in addition to drilling words for the traditional elimination rounds, he had also practiced the tiebreaker every day for six months, despite this format being used just one other time. The tie-break preparation (part of his overall practice regime of six hours on weekdays and 10 hours on weekends) clearly paid off, as he spelled 29 words correctly, compared to Faizan’s 20. His winning word was technically “abseil,” as that was the first word in the spell-off to place him ahead of Faizan. In previous rounds, Bruhat had to correctly spell words such as “habitude,” “dehnstufe,” “Okvik,” and “indumentum.”
Held in National Harbor, Maryland, the spelling bee started at the beginning of last week with 245 contestants, all in third to eighth grade. All 50 U.S. states were represented, as were Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa, plus Canada, Ghana, and the Bahamas. Eight contestants made it to the televised final round, with the chance to take home the Scripps Cup and over $50,000 in cash and prizes on the line.
Bruhat and Faizan were both appearing in the national bee for the third time. The other six finalists were Aditi Muthukumaar, 13, Kirsten Santos, 13 (the only previous finalist), Shrey Parikh, 12, Ananya Rao Prassanna, 13, Rishabh Saha, 14, and YY Liang, 12.
Can you use that in a sentence?
- *Some viewers, including former contestants, were disappointed with this year’s format and TV broadcast, especially as Bruhat and Faizan never had the chance to compete in a conventional round during the final before a tiebreaker was announced.
- *Interestingly, of the last 35 spelling champions, 29 have been of Indian descent. Bruhat’s parents hail from the southern state of Telangana.
- *The National Spelling Bee was first held in 1925, with Frank Neuhauser winning with the word “gladiolus.”