A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite them accordingly.
101-764: The Scripps National Spelling Bee , formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and often referred to as the National Spelling Bee or simply “ the Spelling Bee ” in the United States, is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company and is held at a hotel or convention center in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area during
202-544: A "play-along" broadcast on its streaming platforms. In May 2006, it was announced that the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee would be moved to primetime on ESPN's sister broadcast network ABC , with Robin Roberts of ESPN and Good Morning America serving as host. ABC executives positioned the primetime broadcast as a form of reality television , while the move came on the heels of
303-500: A $ 2,500 savings bond, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $ 400 in reference works and a lifetime membership to Britannica Online Premium from Encyclopædia Britannica , and an online course and a Nook eReader from K12 Inc . All spellers receive Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged on CD-ROM from Merriam-Webster; the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, which is a $ 100 U.S. Savings Bond;
404-503: A cash prize from Scripps for contestants who reach the Semi-finals; and as of 2015, a Microsoft Surface 3 with keyboard and stylus. The cash prizes are determined based on the round, and can be as much as $ 12,500 (for the second-place finisher). In 2014, spellers eliminated before the Semi-finals began receiving educational tools from Microsoft instead of a $ 100 cash prize given in years past. All other prizes remained unchanged. For
505-460: A contestant to begin spelling unless it was obvious that the speller was making no further progress in figuring out the word and that he/she was instead simply "stalling for time". Most local and regional competitions continue to follow this rule and enforcement pattern, although they are not obliged to do so. Starting in 2004, the Bee adopted new rules. A speller is given two and a half minutes from when
606-426: A manner that would be more compelling to viewers. In 1994, Scripps began an agreement with ESPN to broadcast coverage of the national finals; the network added a larger focus on analysis and profiles on the competitors. The broadcasts were credited with having brought greater prominence to the event. ESPN would later expand its coverage to encompass the early rounds of the competition as well, and added features such as
707-652: A phrase was sufficient. Others, more controversial, signaled a shift from linguistic prescriptivism and towards describing American English as it was used at that time. With the ninth edition ( Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (WNNCD), published in 1983), the Collegiate adopted changes which distinguish it as a separate entity rather than merely an abridgment of the Third New International (the main text of which has remained virtually unrevised since 1961). Some proper names were returned to
808-613: A pupil from the fifth grade to participate. In 2012–2013, 30 schools participated. All the 30 pupils participated anxiously to win the competition with 200 words. It becomes officially an authorized contest in Mubarak Al-Kabeer Educational Area (Kuwaiti Spelling Bee) in Kuwait . In the school year 2013–2014 the competition was held in Al-Imam Al-Shafie primary school for boys with 31 schools and
909-550: A sentence. Spellers are given a 30-second pause in which to write down their word with the two pens given to them, and then Bailly repeated the word and all information. There was another 30-second pause, and then they moved onto the next word. Each correctly spelled word on the Round One written test was worth one point. In 2011, they stayed with that format. In 2012, they changed to the original computerized test, 50 spelling words, half scored and half not scored. Beginning in 2013,
1010-492: A speller may not make further requests to the pronouncer but rather must begin spelling the word. Any speller who exceeds the time limit is automatically eliminated; judges do not acknowledge letters spelled after the end of Finish Time. A speller is allowed to stop spelling a word and restart spelling, but if (s)he changes the letters already said, the alteration counts as a misspelling and causes automatic elimination. In addition, any speller that went into Finish Time twice during
1111-525: A spelling bee is held by the State Library Foundation of Western Australia , for children in school years five, six, seven, and eight. The early stages of the competition are held online, and the final spell-off in front of a live audience. Two major prizes are awarded: one for a Junior Winner (Years 5–6) and the other for a Senior Winner (Years 7–8). Further prizes are given to the teacher and school class of each major prize winner, and to
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#17327805816371212-480: A spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: public, private, parochial, charter, virtual, and home schools. Schools enroll with the national office to ensure their students are eligible to participate and to receive the materials needed to conduct classroom and school bees. During enrollment, school bee coordinators receive their local sponsor's program-specific information—local dates, deadlines, and participation guidelines. In
1313-731: A spot in the National Spelling Bee. The 2013 film Bad Words revolves around a forty-year-old eighth grade dropout ( Jason Bateman ) attempting to win a fictional equivalent of the SNSB. The Netflix documentary Spelling the Dream (2020) chronicles the ups and downs of four Indian-American students as they compete to realize their dream of winning the iconic Scripps National Spelling Bee. The Academy Award -nominated documentary film Spellbound (2002) follows eight competitors, including eventual national winner Nupur Lala, through
1414-590: A subsidiary. The company adopted its current name, Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, in 1982. In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language . In 1807 Webster started two decades of intensive work to expand his publication into a fully comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language . To help him trace the etymology of words, Webster learned 26 languages. Webster hoped to standardize American speech, since Americans in different parts of
1515-469: A supplemental education organization from the United States, has organized an annual competition for Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah-area schools. The Sylvan Spelling Challenge is held annually in December and February for students in grades 3–8. The Sylvan competition expects to attract nearly 1,000 participants from 30 schools in its inaugural year. Abu Dhabi University sponsors the largest spelling bee in
1616-713: A test similar to the Preliminaries Test, but containing harder and more confusing words. As a result, there was controversy and Scripps had dropped the Tiebreaker Test in 2019, in which eight co-champions won. Round Four is now an oral spelling round and the start of the Quarterfinals. There are neither a study list nor set rounds for the Quarterfinalists. The contestants who last throughout Quarterfinalists will be deemed semifinalists. At
1717-469: A unique set of phonetic symbols in their dictionaries—intended to help people from different parts of the United States learn how to pronounce words the same way as others who spoke with the same accent or dialect did. Unicode accommodated IPA symbols from Unicode version 1.1 published in 1993, but did not support the phonetic symbols specific to Merriam-Webster dictionaries until Unicode version 4.0 published in 2003. Hence, to enable computerized access to
1818-638: A virtually one-to-one ratio of letters to sound, which makes word spelling predictable; therefore, there are very few spelling bees in these languages. In Africa, a spelling bee is organized by the African Spelling Bee, which holds an Annual Spelling Bee contest for children between the age of 6 and 16 across the continent. The first competition took place in July 2016, bringing together nine different countries. There are several countries that run their own national spelling bees. This includes Uganda;
1919-450: A word is first pronounced to spell it completely. The first two minutes are Regular Time; the final thirty seconds are Finish Time. During this time limit, a speller is allowed to ask the pronouncer for the word's: A chime signals that regular time has expired, and the judges inform the speller that Finish Time has begun. The speller may watch a clock counting down from thirty seconds; no timing devices are allowed onstage. During Finish Time,
2020-660: Is affiliated with the United States –based Scripps National Spelling Bee and uses similar rules and word lists, and competes in all 10 Canadian provinces to provide a Canadian National Champion for the penultimate Scripps competition. Another organization is the Spelling Bee of Canada , which started in 1987 in Toronto , Ontario , and celebrated its 25th anniversary by hosting a Canadian Invitational Bee in 2012, as well as organizing Provincial Bees across Canada, and
2121-548: Is almost exclusive to the English language , because its highly irregular orthography presents more challenges to competitors than languages with relatively phonetic spellings. Spelling bee events, along with variants, are now also held in some other countries around the world. Historically, the word bee has been used to describe a get-together for communal work , like a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an apple bee. According to etymological research recorded in dictionaries,
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#17327805816372222-632: Is an American company that publishes reference books and is mostly known for its dictionaries . It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States. In 1831, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as G & C Merriam Co. in Springfield, Massachusetts . In 1843, after Noah Webster died, the company bought the rights to An American Dictionary of the English Language from Webster's estate. All Merriam-Webster dictionaries trace their lineage to this source. In 1964, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. , acquired Merriam-Webster, Inc., as
2323-454: Is being held in India , Abu Dhabi , Ajman , Bahrain , Dubai , Fujairah , Ras al Khaimah , Sharjah , and Umm-Al-Quwain . In Bahrain, an annual spelling bee contest named Spellbound Bahrain is conducted for the school children by KEEN4, an association of Kerala Engineers. In Malaysia , the annual NST-RHB Spell-it-Right Challenge is open to primary and secondary school students under
2424-580: Is being organized by Evention Master. In Pakistan, the spelling bee competition is promoted by the daily newspaper Dawn , and it takes place every year in October. There are three stages: district, regional and national. National is held in Islamabad . Dawn Spelling Bee is conducted in three stages. District and pool rounds are the first stage of the competition which are held across the districts and cities all across Pakistan. District champions compete in
2525-434: Is displayed on a monitor. The speller is allowed to ask questions of the pronouncer, however, they are using their own time to do so. The winner is the speller that spelled the most words correctly in the round (words not completed within the time do not count towards the tally). In case of a tie, the player with the highest percentage of correctly spelled words from the words the player was given wins. If multiple players have
2626-751: Is for students in any registered school in Nigeria from the ages of 9 years to 16 years who have to register on the competition's website. Apart from the National spelling bee that has representatives across the states in the country, there is another spelling bee that commenced during while Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the governor of Lagos State. This is referring to the New Era Foundation spelling Bee, an annual event in Lagos State that had its first outing in 2001.The spelling bee competition
2727-489: Is held among all public primary and secondary school in Lagos State with the winner and runner-ups of the secondary school category carting away prizes ranging from cash, a trip to Finland and the most outstanding one being the opportunity for the overall winner to serve as one-day governor of the state alongside runner-ups as cabinet members. The spelling bee competition has till date produced 20 one-day governors with
2828-480: Is now in its eleventh edition. Following the publication of Webster's International in 1890, two Collegiate editions were issued as abridgments of each of their Unabridged editions. Merriam overhauled the dictionary again with the 1961 Webster's Third New International under the direction of Philip B. Gove , making changes that sparked public controversy. Many of these changes were in formatting, omitting needless punctuation , or avoiding complete sentences when
2929-510: The COVID-19 pandemic . The E.W. Scripps Company acquired the rights to the program in 1941. The Bee is held in late May and/or early June of each year. It is open to students who have not yet completed the eighth grade, reached their 15th birthday, nor won a previous National Spelling Bee. Its goal is educational: not only to encourage children to perfect the art of spelling , but also to help enlarge their vocabularies and widen their knowledge of
3030-820: The Trump administration . In one viral tweet, Merriam Webster subtly accused Kyle Rittenhouse of fake crying at his trial. In 1996, Merriam-Webster launched its first website, which provided free access to an online dictionary and thesaurus . Merriam-Webster has also published dictionaries of synonyms , English usage , geography ( Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary ), biography , proper names , medical terms , sports terms, slang , Spanish/English, and numerous others. Non-dictionary publications include Collegiate Thesaurus , Secretarial Handbook , Manual for Writers and Editors , Collegiate Encyclopedia , Encyclopedia of Literature , and Encyclopedia of World Religions . On February 16, 2007, Merriam-Webster announced
3131-503: The first bee in 1925 , and doubled to $ 1000 the next year . It dropped back to $ 500 in the 1933 bee during the Great Depression , and only returned to $ 1000 in 1956 . In 1987, the first place prize was raised to $ 1,500, and all spellers after reaching 10th place received $ 50. By 1993 it was $ 5,000. In 2007, the prize was $ 50,000 in cash, but in 2009, the prize dropped to $ 35,000 in cash and more than $ 5,000 in prizes. In 2012,
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3232-433: The 1 hour, 55 minute point of the broadcast), all remaining players participate in a spell-off where each speller is given the same list of words and one minute, thirty seconds to spell as many words as possible; the player must press a buzzer to inform the official they are ready for the next word; each speller is sequestered until it is their turn to compete. The definition, language of origin, and part of speech of each word
3333-415: The 1999 competition. The book American Bee , by James Maguire, profiles five spellers who made it to the final rounds of the competition – Samir Sudhir Patel, Katharine Close , Aliya Deri, Jamie Ding, and Marshall Winchester – as well as giving an overview of the history of the bee. Spelling bee The concept is thought to have originated in the United States , and
3434-595: The 19th century, as a way to motivate students to learn standardized spelling. These spelling bees were usually held within individual schools and towns, and were not nationally organized. In 1908, the National Education Association (NEA) held what it called the " first national spelling bee " at its convention in Cleveland , Ohio . Marie Bolden, a black girl from Cleveland, was named champion. The annual United States National Spelling Bee
3535-607: The 50 US states, several come from Canada, the Bahamas, New Zealand and European countries. In the US, spelling bees are annually held from local levels up to the level of the Scripps National Spelling Bee which awards a cash prize to the winner. The National Spelling Bee is sponsored by English-language newspapers and educational foundations; it is also broadcast on ESPN . Since 2006, the National Spelling Bee's championship rounds have been broadcast on ABC live. In 2005, contestants came from
3636-581: The Bahamas, Jamaica, Canada, and New Zealand, as well as the United States (including territories and overseas military bases). This was the first year that spellers from Canada and New Zealand attended the competition. The final authority for words is the Webster's Third New International Dictionary . The annual study list is available from Scripps, either online or in print. The National Senior Spelling Bee started in Cheyenne, Wyoming , in 1996. Sponsored by
3737-458: The Bee's goal of expanding the vocabulary and language skills of children. Round Two is an oral round, in which each contestant must answer a vocabulary question from the "Words of the Champions" list as specified by the judges. Historically, Round Two was a spelling round where a correct spelling awarded three points, while a miss eliminated the contestant. In the latter case, the judges gave
3838-737: The English language. The Bee is the nation's largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 291 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Ghana, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. To qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a speller must win a regional competition. Regional spelling bees usually cover many counties , with some covering an entire state, U.S. territory, or foreign country. Regional competitions' rules are not required to correspond exactly to those of
3939-609: The Malaysian education syllabus. The competition is carried out in three rounds: the Preliminary Challenge, State Challenge and National Challenge. The preliminary challenge is a written spelling test, from which the top 100 spellers will be chosen to compete in the State Challenge, where the competition is carried out orally. The 1st prize winner from this stage will then represent their states to compete for
4040-563: The National Spelling Bee website, consists of all words used in the National Bee as far back as 1950. It is organized into three sections: Words Appearing Infrequently, Words Appearing with Moderate Frequency, and Word Appearing Frequently. Nearly 800 pages and 24,000 words long, the Consolidated Word List is intended for those who have mastered the basics and already gone through Spell It! . Spelling bee participants in
4141-592: The National Spelling Bee. It contains 4,000 words, divided primarily by language of origin, along with exercises and activities in each section. Most bees whose winners advance to regional-level competition use the School Pronouncer's Guide , which contains a collection of Words of the Champions words as well as "off-list words" not listed in Words of the Champions but featured in Scripps' official dictionary,
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4242-647: The People's Republic of China, India, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, and New Zealand have also competed in recent years. Historically, the competition has been open to, and remains open to, the winners of sponsored regional spelling bees in the U.S. (including territories such as Guam , American Samoa , Puerto Rico , the Navajo Nation , and the U.S. Virgin Islands , along with overseas military bases in Germany and South Korea). Participants from countries other than
4343-517: The Preliminaries now consists of three oral rounds. Preliminaries The preliminaries consists of three rounds, with round one being a spelling section, round two being a vocabulary section, and round three concluding the prelims with a spelling round. Round One is an oral spelling round, with words deriving from the Bee's official list, Words of the Champions. Round One was a written spelling test, and had changed in format several times. In
4444-415: The Preliminaries now includes vocabulary questions, such as being asked to choose the correct definition for a word. While met with criticism by past contestants for deviating from the concept of a spelling bee, organizers indicated that the change was made to help avert perceptions that the competition was based solely on memorization skills (as had been showcased by television broadcasts), and to help further
4545-555: The Regional Championships which are held in 3 regions: Karachi , Lahore , and Islamabad . Three regional winners from each group consisting of the regional champion, first runner up and second runner up compete in the national finals in Islamabad. Students from Karachi Grammar School, EMS High School, Beaconhouse School System , and Lahore Grammar School have won the competition few times. Sylvan Learning Center,
4646-412: The Scripps National Spelling Bee, with personalities including Anderson Cooper and 1979 champion Katie McCrimmon. Scripps CEO Rich Boehne described its coverage as having been "very hit or miss", explaining that "I'd sit and watch and see a little snippet of some coverage and then somebody would cut out and go somewhere else." Boehne began to contemplate how the event could be presented for television in
4747-673: The South Asian Spelling Bee toured 10 US cities in 2011. It is broadcast globally via the satellite channel, Sony Entertainment Television Asia . While most countries and continents have their own spelling bees, there are also a few global Spelling Bees such as ISB Spelling Bee International, which has participation from across the world. Holding spelling bees in English, with its irregular spelling, makes more sense than in languages that have much more consistent spelling. Some languages, like Hindi , Italian , German , and Turkish , have highly phonetic writing systems, with
4848-482: The U.S. must be regional spelling-bee winners as well. Contest participants cannot be older than fourteen as of August 31 of the year before the competition; nor can they be past the eighth grade as of February 1 of that year's competition. Previous winners are also ineligible to compete. In 2019, the Spelling Bee ran out of words that might challenge the contestants and ended up having 8 winners. The 2020 National Spelling Bee competition, originally scheduled for May 24,
4949-553: The United Arab Emirates, attracting students from both public and private institutions for the past three years. The Abu Dhabi University Spelling Bee is heralded as the most challenging and well-known spelling competition in the United Arab Emirates council. The English Language Department in Jeddah conducted a spelling bee competition, Spell Saudia, in 2017 and 2018. The competition has three rounds: Round One: held at
5050-589: The United States also use other reference books and tutoring materials are becoming available on the web. One of the first spelling bee competitions in Vanuatu took place in August 2019. Six primary schools and 36 students on the main island of Vanuatu participated and competed for secondary school scholarships. The SHEFA education office and Peace Corps Volunteers collaborated to make the spelling bee possible. Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
5151-417: The United States will study affixes and etymologies, and often foreign languages from which English draws, in order to spell challenging words. Several preparatory materials have been published, including some in connection with the Scripps National Spelling Bee and those created by independent organizations not related to Scripps. For the first several decades of publication, the Scripps annual study booklet
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#17327805816375252-604: The Wyoming American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), it is open to contestants 50 and older. Maria Dawson is the only contestant to ever win two back-to-back titles at the National Senior Spelling Bee. The South Asian Spelling Bee is another spelling bee platform in the US. The competition is held annually across the US each summer. Participants are South Asian-Americans between ages 8 and 14 years old. Launched in 2008,
5353-421: The age of 70 in 1828, Webster published his dictionary; it sold poorly, with only 2,500 copies, and put him in debt. However, in 1840, he published the second edition in two volumes with much greater success. In 1843, after Webster's death, George Merriam and Charles Merriam secured publishing and revision rights to the 1840 edition of the dictionary. They published a revision in 1847, which did not change any of
5454-428: The bee had their Regular Time reduced to 90 seconds for the remainder of the Bee. Starting in the 2015 Bee, the time limit was reduced to two minutes, indicated by a monitor with a traffic light on it. For the first 75 seconds, the traffic light is green. Once 45 seconds remain, the light turns yellow and a countdown appears on the screen. While the light is green or yellow, the speller is free to request information from
5555-465: The bee. The player cannot be eliminated with a misspell, which would result in all players from the previous round being reinstated. Following the 2019 final, where the championship round ran to its conclusion without a winner being determined, and to meet time constraints, officials intended for 2020 to implement a new tiebreaker. When the championship round is concluded without a determinate winner, or when time constraints necessitate (a round ends after
5656-444: The competition as Kuwait National Spelling Bee for the coming year 2015–2016. The Nigeria Spelling Bee is organized in across states of the federation with national finalists drawn after qualifying from their respective states and either of the six geo-political zones of the country. The Nigeria Spelling Bee which is the widest spelling bee competition in the country has so far been conducted in more than 25 states across Nigeria by
5757-493: The correct spelling. All contestants eliminated in this round tie for the same place in the final rankings. Round Three is a spelling round. This time, the words are derived from the Preliminaries Study Guide, a 500-word list given to national contestants prior to the Bee. If the contestants pass all three rounds of the Preliminaries, they will be crowned quarterfinalists. In the past, Round Three followed
5858-697: The country holds the National Spelling Bee organized by enjuba in 10 different languages, including eight local languages, sign language and English. In Ghana, The Spelling Bee Ghana is organized annually, with the winners being flown to the US to represent Ghana at the Scripps National Spelling Bee . Nigeria's spelling bee is called the Nigeria Spelling Bee, and is organized by the Bee Spelling Competition Initiative in states across
5959-840: The country used somewhat different vocabularies and spelled, pronounced, and used words differently. Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in 1825 in Paris, and at the University of Cambridge . His 1820s book contained 70,000 words, of which about 12,000 had never appeared in a dictionary before. As a spelling reformer , Webster believed that English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex, so his dictionary introduced American English spellings, replacing colour with color , waggon with wagon , and centre with center . He also added American words, including skunk and squash , that did not appear in British dictionaries. At
6060-477: The edition of 1890, the dictionary was retitled Webster's International . The vocabulary was vastly expanded in Webster's New International editions of 1909 and 1934, totaling over half a million words, with the 1934 edition retrospectively called Webster's Second International or simply "The Second Edition" of the New International. The Collegiate Dictionary was introduced in 1898 and the series
6161-474: The educational offices level and the best 3 spellers from each group are nominated to round 2. Round Two:18 spellers from each stage compete against each other and the best six spellers are nominated for the final round which takes place at the ELDJ Closing Ceremony at the end of the academic year. Different companies/schools organize and participate in different, independent spelling bees, but
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#17327805816376262-425: The end of the semifinals, the remaining spellers thin out into 10–16, and all the remaining spellers are invited to spell in the finals. This can go on until the word list is exhausted and the judges move on to the 25 championship rounds until a champion (or a group of joint champions) is crowned. When one player remains after a round, special rules apply. The remaining player must spell one more word correctly to win
6363-454: The event would be officially announced in early 2013 with the first competition to take place the following December. As of 2015, these plans are on hold. As of the 2019 competition , the first place prize was raised from $ 40,000 to $ 50,000, and in the event of a tie, the two winners will split the first and second place ($ 25,000) awards ($ 37,500 each). The winner also receives other prizes, such as an engraved loving cup trophy from Scripps,
6464-452: The federation of Nigeria. Botswana , Nigeria , Kenya , South Africa , Ethiopia , Lesotho , Zimbabwe , Malawi , and Rwanda are also part of the African Spelling Bee, with the number of countries still growing. In Asia, a spelling bee is being conducted up to the international level by MaRRS Spelling Bee . The competition involves learning the correct spelling of words, their use in sentences and in multiple contexts. Currently, it
6565-505: The few years prior to 2008, Round One had consisted of a 25-word, multiple-choice written test. However, in 2010, changes were made in the formatting of this test. It consisted of 25 words, sometimes called "the written round". All spellers gathered at the Maryland Ballroom by 8:00 a.m. Jacques Bailly , the Bee's official pronouncer (also the 1980 champion) pronounced each word, its language of origin, definition, and usage in
6666-502: The first three decades of the bee (1925–1957), the spelling competition was held on a single day. This presented no problem in the Bee's early years, which had only nine contestants in 1925, and did not crack 50 contestants before 1950. After the 1957 bee took almost 10 hours to complete (the second-ever tie after the word list was exhausted), the bee moved to a two-day format in 1958 . As the number of contestants continued to increase (first breaking 100 in 1978 ), an opening practice round
6767-431: The fourth and fifth grades. It was a successful experiment which was faced with a lot of appreciation from Mrs. Aisha Al Awadhi, ELT Senior Supervisor of English Language supervision. Then they decided to hold the competition among the whole educational area (Mubarak Al-Kabeer Educational area). In 2010–2011, the contest was held with 27 schools (12 schools for boys and 15 for girls – around 2700 pupils). Each school nominated
6868-426: The influential The Chicago Manual of Style , which is followed by many book publishers and magazines in the United States. The Chicago Manual states that it "normally opts for" the first spelling listed. The G. & C. Merriam Company lost its right to exclusive use of the name "Webster" after a series of lawsuits placed that name in public domain . Its name was changed to " Merriam-Webster, Incorporated ", with
6969-560: The largest company in Latin America to organize annual international spelling bees since 2015 is Advanced Methods Corporation (Amco), a U.S.-based company that promotes learning English as a second language. Schools from Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Chile, Honduras, and El Salvador enrolled to the Amco system are eligible to participate in the annual Amco Spelling Bee, consisting of 3 stages: school (selection of students to participate in
7070-502: The launch of a mobile dictionary and thesaurus service developed with mobile search-and-information provider AskMeNow . Consumers use the service to access definitions, spelling and synonyms via text message . Services also include Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day —and Open Dictionary , a wiki service that provides subscribers the opportunity to create and submit their own new words and definitions. The Merriam-Webster company once used
7171-490: The main text but merely added new sections, and a second update with illustrations in 1859. In 1864, Merriam published a greatly expanded edition, which was the first version to change Webster's text, largely overhauling his work yet retaining many of his definitions and the title " An American Dictionary " . This began a series of revisions that were described as being "unabridged" in content. In 1884 it contained 118,000 words, "3000 more than any other English dictionary". With
7272-586: The most improved speller each week. Starting in 2012, Bangladesh 's English daily newspaper, The Daily Star and e-Learning portal Champs21.com have been organizing a televised spelling bee on Channel i for the students of class six to ten from Bengali and English medium backgrounds, who compete through their schools and the Champs21 website. The spelling bee team visits 7 divisional cities ( Dhaka , Chittagong , Sylhet , Rangpur , Rajshahi , Khulna & Barisal ) to test top 1% speller and top 96 speller of
7373-432: The national competition, a speller must be sponsored. Scripps has 281 sponsors (mostly newspapers) from the U.S., Canada, The Bahamas, New Zealand, Asia, and Europe covering a certain area and conducting their own regional spelling bees to send spellers to the national level. Sponsorship is available on a limited basis to daily and weekly newspapers serving English-speaking populations around the world. Each sponsor organizes
7474-411: The national competition; most notably, the national competition has since 2004 featured time controls that are designed to ensure its conformity to the programming schedule of its nationwide television broadcaster (see Regulations of oral rounds below) and that are not intended to be implemented at lower levels of competition. Most school and regional bees (known to Scripps as local spelling bees) use
7575-418: The official study booklet. Through competition year 1994, the study booklet was known as Words of the Champions ; during competition years 1995 through 2006, the study booklet was the category-based Paideia ; in 2007 the format and title were changed to the 701-word Spell It! , and since 2020 a new edition of Words of the Champions has been used. The booklet is published by Merriam-Webster in association with
7676-601: The organizers (Bee Spelling Competition Initiative) which has been endorsed by the Federal Ministry of Education , Ministry of Culture and the state ministries of education. Winners of the Nigeria Spelling Bee competition win up to ₦ 1,000,000 in scholarship and participate in the annual African Spelling Bee which is a continental event organized by the African Spelling Bee Consortium as the official Nigerian delegates. The competition
7777-596: The past, the Preliminaries had consisted of a test (Preliminaries Test) delivered by computer on Tuesday and two rounds of oral spelling onstage on Wednesday. Spellers may earn up to 36 points during the Preliminaries: up to 30 points on the Preliminaries Test, three points for correctly spelling in Round Two and three points for correctly spelling in Round Three. In 2021, the Preliminaries Test got omitted, and
7878-569: The prevalence of Indian and Indian-American champions in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States. In the school year 2008–2009, Mrs. Wijdan Alawadhi (senior teacher) and Mrs. Mona Yehia (teacher of English) started the spelling bee contest in Mubarak al-Kabir Educational Area (one of the biggest Kuwaiti Governorates). They started the contest as an experiment in their school (Thabet Bin Zaid Primary School for Boys) with
7979-425: The prize dropped yet again to $ 30,000 in cash and just over $ 10,000 in prizes, savings bonds, and scholarships. In 2015, the prize increased to $ 38,600 in cash, and increased again in 2016 to $ 40,000 cash prize, where it stayed the same until 2018, when the prize was increased to $ 50,000 cash, which was equivalent to the cash prize eleven years before. CNN was one of the first television channels to carry coverage of
8080-902: The pronouncer as listed above. Once 30 seconds remain, the light turns red and the speller must begin spelling the word as in Finish Time above. The 2023 Bee reduced the time limit further to 90 seconds; the traffic light system introduced in the 2015 Bee remained in place, with the light remaining green for the first 60 seconds, turning yellow (and the countdown appearing) at 30 seconds remaining, and red (with Finish Time rules going into effect) at 15 seconds remaining. In May 2012, Scripps announced tentative plans for an international version, in which three-person teams from as many as sixty countries would compete. Although each speller would be able to confer with teammates once during each contest, all spellers would eventually compete and win prizes as individuals. If logistical and financial details can be reached,
8181-482: The pronunciation without having to rework all dictionaries to IPA notation, the online services of Merriam-Webster specify phonetics using a less-specific set of ASCII characters. Merriam creates entries by finding uses of a particular word in print and recording them in a database of citations . Editors at Merriam spend about an hour a day looking at print sources, from books and newspapers to less formal publications, like advertisements and product packaging, to study
8282-643: The publication of Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary in 1983. Previous publications had used " A Merriam-Webster Dictionary " as a subtitle for many years and will be found on older editions. Since the 1940s, the company has added many specialized dictionaries, language aides, and other references to its repertoire. The company has been a subsidiary of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. , since 1964. The dictionary maintains an active social media presence, where it frequently posts dictionary related content as well as its takes on politics. Its Twitter account has frequently used dictionary jargon to criticize and lampoon
8383-657: The regional, repeats with the next stages), regional, and international. The international one is always set in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in Expo Guadalajara, and is almost always held in the last days of May or beginnings of June. In 1876 there were newspaper reports of spelling bees in a number of towns in the United Kingdom . Since 2009, The Times newspaper has run a spelling bee for schools: The Times Spelling Bee. Serious spelling bee competitors in
8484-575: The release of Akeelah and the Bee —a drama film based on the event. By 2013, the ABC broadcast had been dropped, with the finals returning exclusively to ESPN. In October 2021, Scripps announced that the event's broadcast would move to its co-owned broadcast television networks Bounce TV and Ion Television beginning in 2022; the company promoted that the event would be "accessible to the widest audience in its nearly 100-year history". The drama film Bee Season (2005), based on Myla Goldberg 's novel of
8585-507: The same format as Round Two's spelling round, but each contestant's word was chosen from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. After this round, the remaining contestants' total scores were used to determine the semifinalists. Round Four had changed in 2016. Scripps had dropped the semi-finals test and had added a Tiebreaker Test (however, it was only used in 2017 and 2018), in which the spellers took
8686-452: The same name , follows a young girl's journey through various levels of spelling-bee competition to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, as did the drama film Akeelah and the Bee (2006). The 2nd episode of season 1 of Psych , " Spellingg Bee ", dealt with a murder during a Spelling Bee event. Contestants in the musical-comedy play The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee , which ran on Broadway starting in 2005, are competing for
8787-411: The same number and percentage of correctly spelled words, the event is a tie and co-champions are crowned. The playoff format was first implemented in 2021, and the first tiebreaker was used in 2022. Before 2004, a speller could not be required to spell a given word until the judges deemed that the word had been clearly pronounced and identified by the speller; even then, judges rarely if ever instructed
8888-580: The season participate in the television show. The competition is the first such arrangement in Bangladesh. The champion is rewarded with a trip to Washington, DC. The winners of season 2 met the honorable president of the People's Republic of Bangladesh Advocate Abdul Hamid . The fourth season was held in 2016. The Postmedia Canspell National Spelling Bee is a Scripps affiliated Canadian spelling bee held annually nationwide in Canada since 2005. The bee
8989-569: The title of National Spell-it-Right Champion in the National Challenge. In Taiwan, the National Spelling Bee Championship is a contest held by Bugstation.tv for young English learners. Thousands of young applicants join this contest each year. The annual Asia Spelling Cup is held in different cities throughout Asia, and uses mobile pre-selection testing to identify finalists. In Western Australia,
9090-412: The unabridged Webster's Third New International Dictionary (published by Merriam-Webster). Scripps provides a Sponsor Bee Guide to administrators of regional bees. The Sponsor Bee Guide consists of two volumes, each of which contains both words from Words of the Champions and "surprise words". Bees need not use the words from Words of the Champions to be considered official. To participate in
9191-682: The week following Memorial Day weekend . Since 2011, it has been held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center hotel in National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland , just outside Washington D.C. It was previously held at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington D.C. from 1996 to 2010. Although most of its participants are from the U.S., students from countries such as The Bahamas, Canada,
9292-406: The word bee probably comes from dialectal been or bean (meaning "help given by neighbors"), which came from Middle English bene (meaning "prayer", "boon" and "extra service by a tenant to his lord"). The earliest known evidence of the phrase spelling bee in print dates back to 1850, although an earlier name, spelling match , has been traced back to 1808. A key impetus for the contests
9393-504: The word list, including names of Knights of the Round Table . The most notable change was the inclusion of the date of the first known citation of each word, to document its entry into the English language. The eleventh edition (published in 2003) includes more than 225,000 definitions, and more than 165,000 entries. A CD-ROM of the text is sometimes included. This dictionary is preferred as a source "for general matters of spelling" by
9494-549: The words list contained 260 words. In 2014–2015 with the patronage of Mr. Talaq Al-Hiem the director of Mubarak Al-Kabeer Educational Area the competition held with the participation of 33 schools (16 girls, 15 boys and 2 LD) in Sabah AL-Salem Primary school with the help of its principal Mrs. Amira Baqer. Mrs. Aisha Al-Awadhi and the success of the competition convinced the ELT General supervision to decide
9595-523: The world. The India Spelling Bee is held for school students across the country, featuring school-level, state and regional-level, and national-level competitions. The contest focuses on commonly used but misspelled words for students. It also organizes corporate and institutional contests. Spelling bees in India have seen increasing interest and participation from schools across the country, including rural and suburban areas. This has been further fueled by
9696-514: The year 2020 winner being a female student from Angus Memorial Senior High School, Shomolu Lagos - Miss Jemimah Marcus. In 2010, a spelling bee was held for the first time in Nepal organized by Rotaract Club of Charumati. Benish Shrestha, Grade 10, Galaxy Public School came first; Bibek Rauniyar, Grade 10, Gillette International Boarding School came second; and Arnav Singh from Grade 9 Little Angels School secured third position. Now Spelling Bee-Nepal
9797-415: Was Noah Webster 's spelling books. First published in 1786 and known colloquially as "The Blue-backed Speller", Webster's spelling books were an essential part of the curriculum of all elementary school children in the United States for five generations. Now the key reference for the contests is Webster's Third New International Dictionary . Spelling bees became widespread across the United States during
9898-417: Was eliminated at the 1987 bee due to a record 185 entrants. After a three-day bee was held for the first time in 2001 , a written test was added for the first time in 2002 to help keep the bee to two days of competition. In 2002 and 2003, a 25-word written test was given after an opening oral round. For most of its early years, the first place prize was either $ 500 or $ 1000. It was $ 500 in gold pieces in
9999-566: Was named Words of the Champions , which offered 3,000 words in a list separated into beginning, intermediate & expert groupings. In the mid-1990s the annual study list changed to Paideia (from the Greek word meaning education and culture), which ultimately contained more than 4,100 words, then again in 2006 to the shorter list, entitled Spell It! , the 2009 edition having 1155 words (911 basic words and 244 challenge words). The Consolidated Word List , also published by Scripps and available on
10100-582: Was started in 1925 by The Courier-Journal , the newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky . The winner was Frank Neuhauser , age 11, who won the 1st National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in 1925. In 1941, the Scripps Howard News Service acquired sponsorship of the event, and the name changed to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee . Later, the name was shortened to the Scripps National Spelling Bee . Besides competitors from
10201-550: Was suspended and later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . This was the first time it had been canceled since 1945. The National Spelling Bee was formed in 1925 as a consolidation of numerous local spelling bees, organized by The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. Frank Neuhauser won the first National Spelling Bee held that year, by successfully spelling "gladiolus". The spelling bee has been held every year except for 1943–1945 due to World War II and 2020 due to
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