National Spelling Bee to Kick Off

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May 25, 2019

The Scripps National Spelling Bee will take place May 27–30 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. The action begins on the 27th, with a preliminaries test. Onstage spelling rounds begin the next day, and the finals take place on May 30.

Spelling Bee logo

Of the 565 participants, 295 are male and 270 are female. The youngest participant is 7 and is in first grade; the oldest is 15. The grade with the most students is 8th, with 216. A total of 162 spellers have participated previously; of those, 120 are in their second year, 35 are in their third year, five are in their fourth year, and two are competing for the fifth time.

The participants are from all 50 states and from U.S. territories and a handful of other countries, including the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, and South Korea.

All spellers receive a one-year subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium, and a 2019 U.S. Mint proof set.

All finalists receive a commemorative medal. The longer a finalist stays in the competition, the more money he or she makes. A finalist who doesn't make it to the seventh round gets an additional $500. Continuing up the sliding scale:

  • 7th place gets $2,000
  • 6th place gets $2,500
  • 5th place gets $5,000
  • 4th place gets $10,000
  • 3rd place gets $15,000
  • 2nd place gets $25,000

The last surviving speller wins $52,500 and an engraved trophy, a complete reference library from Merriam-Webster, a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium, a replica set of the 1768 Encyclopedia Britannica, $400 of reference works, a trip to New York to appear on the TV show Live with Kelly and Ryan, and a trip to Hollywood to appear on the TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

In 2018, 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani, of McKinney, Texas, correctly spelled koinonia and won the 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee.

More on the national spelling bee

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