The best young spellers in the English language are competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week, continuing a more than century-old tradition. The three-day competition began Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.
This year's 247 spellers represent 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories and five other countries. They competed in preliminary rounds on Tuesday, quarterfinals and semifinals are happening Wednesday, and finals Thursday, with the winner taking the unofficial crown of top speller in the English language. The champion's haul includes a trophy and more than $52,000 in cash and prizes.
After the preliminary rounds on Tuesday, 167 were left, and that field was cut to 95 quarterfinalists after a written spelling and vocabulary test.
The top returning finisher from 2025 is Sarv Dharavane of Dunwoody, Georgia, who finished third last year as an 11-year-old fifth-grader and got a perfect score on the written test. This year, he got a perfect score on the written test, and he’s one of the spellers to qualify for Thursday’s finals.
Here are the other finalists:
— Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California, who finished third in 2024. He lost at the school level in 2025 but has dominated the bee circuit since, winning the South Asian Spelling Bee, the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee and the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee.
— Oliver Halkett, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Los Angeles who finished in a tie for seventh last year.
— Zwe Spacetime, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Fort Washington, Maryland, and the younger brother of 2021 champion Zaila Avant-garde.
— Aiden Meng, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Orinda, California, who bowed out in the quarterfinals last year.
— Ishaan Gupta, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Jersey City, New Jersey, who was a semifinalist last year.
— Kushi Gottimukkala, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Morrisville, North Carolina, a semifinalist last year.
— Avishka Dudala, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Prosper, Texas, a semifinalist last year.
— Logan Bailey, a 12-year-old sixth-grader from Houston. The winner of the North South Foundation spelling bee, he is making his debut on the national stage.
About a dozen spellers typically make it to the finals, although this year only nine made it. When only two remain, Scripps has the option to use a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a “spell-off” to determine the champion.
Spellers can compete through the eighth grade, and this year's competitors range in age from 9 to 15. Faizan Zaki won last year's bee and will return in a ceremonial role; past champions are not allowed to compete again and last year's runner-up aged out of the competition. The bee moved this year to a new venue, Constitution Hall in downtown Washington, after more than a decade at a convention center just outside the city in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Mina Kimes, an NFL analyst for ESPN and the recent “Celebrity Jeopardy!” champion, is serving as the television host, the bee's first celebrity host since LeVar Burton in 2022.