The Scripps Bee honored the Akron Beacon Journal as its Regional Partner of the Year, noteworthy given that the paper has sponsored a speller at every bee since its inception in 1925.[5]
In 2026, the bee will be held at the DAR Constitution Hall, with contestants staying at the JW Marriott Washington D.C. 2025 was the last year it will be held in National Harbor.[6]
243 spellers competed in this year's bee, a decrease of two from 2024's competition.[8]
The field contained 53 spellers returning from the 2024 Bee, and 65 spellers total who had competed in a prior national competition.[9]
Tarini Nandakumar from Texas competed in her fifth Bee, having placed as high as ninth in 2023. Five spellers were four-time repeaters: Navtaj Singh from Idaho, Harini Murali from New Jersey, Micah Sterling from New York, Avinav Prem Anand from Ohio, and Faizan Zaki from Texas, who was the runner-up in 2024.[10]
Some spellers with notable family connections are Zwe Spacetime, younger brother of 2021 champion Zaila Avant-garde[11] and Vedanth Raju, younger brother of 2022's 2nd-place finisher Vikram Raju.[12] Both of these spellers tied for 10th place.[13]
Eight-year-old second grader Zachary Teoh was the youngest speller in the competition, and also the Houston area's youngest ever representative at the Scripps Bee.[14] He noted that the highlight of his experience was reading the dictionary with Dr. Bailly. He subsequently placed 74th and has the potential to become the Bee's first 7-year repeater should he return each year of his eligibility.[15]
Competition
Scripps-owned networks ION and Bounce TV aired the competition.
After the first three rounds of competition on May 27, 99 spellers advanced to the quarterfinals on May 28, with 57 advancing to the semifinals later that day.[16]
Nine spellers qualified as finalists after successfully advancing past round 10 in the semifinals:[17]
Esha Marupudi, a 13-year-old seventh grader representing Arizona Educational Foundation of Phoenix, Arizona Oliver Halkett, a 13-year-old seventh grader representing Los Angeles County Office of Education of Los Angeles, California Sarvadnya Kadam, a 14-year-old eighth grader representing Tulare County Office of Education of Visalia, California Sarv Dharavane, an 11-year-old fifth grader representing Georgia Association of Educators of Tucker, Georgia Harini Murali, a 13-year-old eighth grader representing SNSB Region Three Bee of Edison, New Jersey Brian Liu, a 13-year-old eighth grader representing SNSB Region Four Bee of Great Neck, New York Aishwarya Kallakuri, a 14-year-old eighth grader representing Carolina Panthers of Charlotte, North Carolina Akshaj Somisetty, a 13-year-old eighth grader representing Pennon Education of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Faizan Zaki, a 13-year-old seventh grader representing Dallas Sports Commission of Dallas, Texas[18]
The finalists displayed their high level of skill over the course of eleven rounds on the evening of May 29, as they passed four of the rounds without a single misspelled word.[19][20][21][22] The top six spellers lasted three of those perfect rounds together, all part of a run of 23 words in a row spelled correctly.[23]
Faizan Zaki emerged as the champion [24] in round 21 of the Bee, spelling the world éclaircissement correctly and winning $50,000.[25]
As Associated Press reporter Ben Nuckols noted, he "nearly threw away his opportunity to go from runner-up to champion at the Scripps National Spelling Bee with a shocking moment of overconfidence" as he hastily began spelling commelina incorrectly before checking to see if he knew the word. As third-place finisher Sarv Dharavane and runner-up Sarvadnya Kadam also misspelled their words in the round, they were all reinstated at the time.[26]
Faizan is the first speller since 2001 to claim the championship after having previously been runner-up.[27]
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