Teen Spells 32 Words in 90 Seconds to Win National Bee

After 18 grueling rounds couldn't separate two brilliant young spellers, officials turned to a format so rare that most viewers had never seen it before.

Shrey Parikh, 14, from California claimed the championship at the 98th Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night in a dramatic 90-second spell-off. The nail-biting tiebreaker required him to spell as many obscure words as possible before time ran out, making speed just as crucial as accuracy.

Parikh correctly spelled 32 words to his competitor's 25, finishing with the winning word "cashaw." His opponent, 12-year-old Ishaan Gupta from New Jersey, had matched him word for word through more than two hours of competition before the rare format decided the outcome.

The spell-off rule was introduced in 2021 after multiple co-champions in previous years. Nine contestants started the evening finals, selected from 247 competitors who began the tournament. More than 11 million students participate in local and regional spelling bees across the country each year.

The journey to champion took Parikh three years of dedication. He finished 89th in his 2022 debut, then surged to third place in 2024. This year, he told reporters he studied about five hours every day, memorizing tens of thousands of words from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.

Competitors faced words most people have never encountered, from scientific terms to loanwords borrowed from other languages. This year's challenge words included Jatrorrhiza, catometope, Faesulae, and Kadohadacho. Past winning words have ranged from familiar terms like "croissant" to head-scratchers like "psammophile."

The Ripple Effect

The Scripps National Spelling Bee has been inspiring young people to fall in love with language since 1925. While the competition recently added vocabulary rounds and gameshow-style hosting to appeal to modern audiences, the core mission remains unchanged: celebrating the beauty and complexity of words.

For every champion crowned on stage, thousands more students discover confidence, discipline, and a passion for learning through their local competitions. These young people prove that dedication and curiosity can take you anywhere, one correctly spelled word at a time.

Five hours a day of practice transformed a middle-of-the-pack competitor into a national champion in just two years.