The 95th

Scripps National Spelling Bee The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scri ...

was a

spelling bee 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 ...

competition that was held at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The 2023 bee welcomed 231 spellers from the United States and its territories, Canada, Ghana, and The Bahamas. After competing in quarterfinal and semi-final rounds on May 30 and May 31, 2023, the field of competition narrowed to 11 finalists who competed on the night of June 1, 2023. Dev Shah of Largo, Florida, won the competition upon correctly spelling the word psammophile after Charlotte Walsh (placed second) spelled daviely incorrectly. Shradha Rachamreddy, and two-time finalist Surya Kapu, tied for third place after surviving until round 13 of the competition.

Field

Scripps National Spelling Bee's field of competition begins with 11 million students, in grades 8 and younger, who compete in local and regional spelling bee competitions to qualify for the Scripps Bee. The 11 finalist spellers, and their respective sponsors, were the following students: Dhruv Subramanian, 12, a 7th grader representing the San Ramon Valley Rotary Club of

San Ramon, California San Ramon (Spanish: ''San Ramón'', meaning "St. Raymond") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located within the San Ramon Valley, and east of San Francisco. San Ramon's population was 84,605 per the 2020 census, maki ...

. Vikrant Chintanaboina, 14, an 8th grader representing the San Ramon Valley Rotary Club of San Ramon, California. Shradha Rachamreddy, 13, a 7th grader representing the San Ramon Valley Rotary Club of San Ramon, California. Arth Dalsania, 14, an 8th grader representing

SAGE Publishing SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...

Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown. It is named af ...

. Dev Shah, 14, an 8th grader representing SNSB Region One Bee of Largo, Florida. Aryan Khedkar, 12, a 7th grader representing the Oakland Schools Education Foundation of Waterford, Michigan. Sarah Fernandes, 11, a 5th grader representing the Omaha Sports Commission of

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. Pranav Anandh, 14, an 8th grader representing the Delaware County Intermediate Unit of Morton, Pennsylvania. Tarini Nandakumar, 12, a 6th grader representing Sweet Success ATX of

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. Surya Kapu, 14, an 8th grader representing The City Journals of

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. Surya was the only finalist in 2023 who was also a finalist in 2022; then, he tied for 5th place. Charlotte Walsh, 14, an 8th grader representing the Fairfax County Council PTA of Merrifield, Virginia.

Competition

The 2023 bee was infused with new leadership as longtime Scripps Bee employee and former three-time bee participant Corrie Loeffler assumed the role of Executive Director. A highlight of the 2023 competition was

Akash Vukoti Akash Vukoti is an Indian-American spelling child prodigy and TV personality from San Angelo, Texas. He was the first-ever first grader to qualify for and compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and first appeared in the NBC TV show ''Lit ...

making history as the National Spelling Bee's first ever six-year repeater. Akash tied for 74th place after leaving the competition in round 4. As in the two years since the Scripps Bee resumed after the cancellation of the 2020 competition due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, spellers engaged in quarterfinal, semi-final, and final rounds over three days of competition. Each segment included spelling rounds and word meaning rounds where the speller displayed their knowledge of definitions by stating their answers from a multiple-choice selection. The bee introduced a new standardized test, conducted prior to the competition, to assess the spellers' collective abilities to aid with the work of the Word List Panel. The bee's Word List Panel granted exclusive access to

The Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

during the 2023 Bee Week to publicly reveal details about their process, which had been secret since the panel formed in the 1980s.

ION TV Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented entert ...

continued its broadcast coverage of the bee for a second year, with Paul Loeffler as commentator and welcoming featured guest commentators such as 2021 champion

Zaila Avant-garde Zaila Avant-garde (born February 9, 2007) is an American speller, basketball player, and juggler. She won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. She is the first African-American contestant to win the bee and is the second Black winner, after J ...

, 2022 champion Harini Logan, sisters and former champions Dr. Kavya (2009) and Vanya (2015) Shivashankar, and actor Yvette Nicole Brown. Rock band

The Linda Lindas The Linda Lindas is a rock band from Los Angeles. The all-girl group comprises Bela Salazar, Eloise Wong, and sisters Lucia and Mila de la Garza. History In January 2018, Eloise Wong's father Martin Wong was contacted by an acquaintance, askin ...

performed at the bee making them the bee's first ever musical performance.

Final rankings

1st place Dev Shah 2nd place Charlotte Walsh 3rd place (tie) Shradha Rachamreddy Surya Kapu 5th place (tie) Dhruv Subramanian Vikrant Chintanaboina Aryan Khedkar 8th place Arth Dalsania 9th place Tarini Nandakumar 10th place (tie) Sarah Fernandes Pranav Anandh

Word list championship round

References

{{Scripps National Spelling Bee, state=collapsed Scripps National Spelling Bee competitions 2022 in Maryland 2022 in education

Field

Competition

Final rankings

Word list championship round

See also

References