Faizan Zaki wins the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee 2025: Notable Spellers, Rules, Prize money ..
The sport of the brain: spelling.
Brush off the dictionaries and fasten the bifocals – it's officially "Bee Week."
The best young spellers in the English language are set to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
— In 2024, Faizan Zaki came up short in the spell-off.
That wasn’t going to happen again. Because he made sure there was no spell-off. But he also didn’t make it easy on himself.
Zaki bested Sarvadnya Kadam in the 20th round to win the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. He sealed the deal by nailing éclaircissement, running out of breath and collapsing to the floor as confetti fell on him and the crowd erupted.
“I can’t describe it,” Zaki said minutes later. “It’s so amazing, getting to this point. Winning? I never expected this.”
Last year, Zaki lost to Bruhat Soma in the spell-off and became just the fifth runner-up to later win the Bee.
“Obviously, I was really disappointed. But then I just had that sudden drive to keep studying,” Zaki said. “So that’s what motivated me to do better. And now I’m here. I have the trophy.”
The Allen, Texas, native had a chance to hoist the Scripps Cup after the 18th round before one of the more dramatic Bee scenes in some time ensued. Kadam and Sarv Dharavane misspelled their words before Zaki stepped to the mic.
But he rushed and didn’t pay attention to head pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly’s version of “commelina” – Zaki started with a “k” for the word he thought he’d heard – and judge Mary Brooks’ bell rang .
Zaki – sponsored by the Dallas Sports Commission – signaled to the crowd with a thumbs-up. He had everything under control.
Faizan Zaki celebrates after winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship.
And after finishing second the year prior, the moment still felt elusive.
“I know he’s put in the work,” Quadri said. “Still, it feels surreal.”
Finishing as the runner-up last year was “a little bit of a disappointment” for her son, Quadri added. “But we were really excited,” she said. “Even a runner-up is pretty amazing, and we had not gone in expecting that.”
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The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. The bee is now held just outside the nation’s capital, at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River in Oxon Hill, Maryland. It starts Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.
This will be the 97th bee; it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s champion will be the 110th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.
When is the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee.?
The 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee returns to the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland with preliminary rounds beginning Tuesday and continuing Wednesday before a champion – champions? – is crowned Thursday night.
The 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee takes place May 27, May 28, and May 29. Visit spellingbee.com beginning May 1, 2025, for a full competition schedule.
2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee Schedule, Times
All Times, ET
Tuesday: Preliminaries (rounds one and two), 8 a.m-4:10 p.m.; preliminaries (round three), 4:20-7:40 p.m.
Wednesday: Quarterfinals, 8 a.m.-12:45 p.m.; semifinals 2:30-6:30 p.m.
Thursday: Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals, 8-10 p.m., ION
How to watch, stream 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee on your iPhone, Android, tablet, computer or TV
The preliminaries, quarterfinals and semifinals can all be streamed on a variety of platforms: ION Plus, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com. A special semifinals broadcast will air Wednesday from 8-10 p.m. ET on ION and Scripps News, as well as Bounce, Grit, ION Mystery, Laff and Defy TV.
The finals will air live in primetime on ION from 8-10 p.m. on Thursday, May 29.
Scripps reported its best ratings for a finals broadcast since 2012 with 6.1 million viewers last year, which was a 30% increase compared to 2022.
Where can you livestream 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee?
If you have these streaming platforms, you can watch ION Television by downloading the apps and loading them on your screen:
the CW
Freevee
Fubo TV
Roku Channel
Pluto TV
Tubi
YouTube TV
Google TV
What are the prize money for the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion?
All spellers are given one-year subscriptions to both Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online and Britannica Online Premium. Quarterfinalists receive a commemorative medal and a $100 gift card, while semifinalists receive a $500 gift card.
Prize money for the finalists, from the Bee, is awarded in the following order:
Finalist to 7th place - $2,000
6th place - $2,500
5th place - $5,000
4th place - $10,000
3rd place - $15,000
2nd place - $25,000
1st Place - $52,500
The winner receives:
- $50,000 cash (from Scripps)
- The Scripps Cup, the official championship trophy of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
- $2,500 cash and reference library from Encyclopedia Britannica (courtesy of Merriam-Webster)
- $400 of reference works, including a 1768 Encyclopedia Britannica Replica Set and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium (from Encyclopedia Britannica)
- $1,000 Scholastic Dollars to be donated to the school of the champion’s choice in their honor (from SugarBee Apple)
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Who won the 2024 National Spelling Bee?
Soma entered the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee with three smaller spelling bee victories already under his belt in 2024, and the 12-year-old from St. Petersburg, Florida, won the big prize Thursday by defeating fellow 12-year-old Faizan Zaki in a spell-off.
With organizers calling for a spell-off to determine a winner following 14 rounds over three days at the national championships, Soma spelled 29 words correctly in a 90-second span to best Zaki, who recorded 20 correct words.
2023 WINNER: Dev Shah, an eighth-grader from Largo, Florida, spelled "psammophile" correctly to win the 95th national Bee and the $50,000 prize.
Shah, who attends Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School, previously competed in 2019 (tied for 51st place) and 2021 (tied for 76th place).
2022 Winner: Harini Logan, a 14-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, won the 2022 competition. The finals featured the first-ever spell-off, a 90-second tiebreaker to determine a champion.
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What was winning word at 2024 Spelling Bee?
With the spell-off, there is no official winning word. Zaki spelled “nicuri” to force the spell-off after Soma correctly spelled “daena.”
Zaki asked for some time to take deep breaths before beginning his 90-second run.
Zaki is one of Soma's closest friends on the spelling circuit. The two shared a hug before head pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly read the results of the spell-off.
2023 Winning Words: The 14-year-old from Largo's winning word was "psammophile," a noun defined as an organism that prefers or thrives in sandy areas..
Who is Bruhat Soma? 2024 National Spelling Bee winner 'knew all of my words'
For Soma, winning the Bee has been a goal of his since third grade. He bowed out in the quarterfinals last year and decided to “go hard” in the run-up to the 2024 Bee to make up for that performance.
Asked what the hardest word of the week he received was, he said: “I mean, to be fair, I knew all of my words. So I don’t really know.”
To help him spell out loud, Soma employs the strategy of "typing" with his left hand on an imaginary keyboard. He said he was strategic in choosing which sections to memorize – the ones he was most likely to hear at the Bee.
Nonetheless, anybody can devote a few days or weeks to practicing spelling, Evans said. Soma's dedication was different.
Who is the youngest speller bee champion?
Sanil Thorat (speller 91), a third grader from Fairfield Elementary Magnet School in Shreveport, Louisiana, is the only 8-year-old who made it to the national competition. There are five 9-year-olds spelling.
Who will win the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Odds?
Zaiki, a 13-year-old from Dallas, Texas, is a strong candidate based on track record. He’s the lone returning finalist and is competing in his fourth Bee. He advanced to the quarterfinals with a perfect score of 35 in the Round 3 preliminaries test Tuesday afternoon (the minimum score needed to advance was 13).
The contestants are representing 173 public schools, 32 private schools, 21 parochial schools and 12 charter schools. Seven are homeschooled.
What are the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee?
Spellers qualify by advancing through regional bees hosted by sponsors around the country. In order to compete, spellers must not have advanced beyond the eighth grade or be older than 15.
Spellers must get through two preliminary rounds, quizzing them on words from a list provided in advance: one spelling round and one multiple-choice vocabulary round.
Those who make it through the preliminaries sit for a written spelling and vocabulary test, with the top 100 or so finishers advancing to the quarterfinals. The words for the test, and for all subsequent rounds, are taken from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary.
Throughout the quarterfinals and semifinals, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.
About a dozen spellers advance to the finals. When only two spellers remain, Scripps has the option to use a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a “spell-off” to determine the champion. However, Scripps has taken away the requirement that the spell-off begin at a specific time, giving bee judges more discretion to let the competition play out.
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