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  • You don't need to prepare every word in the dictionary to be Be a National Spelling Bee Champion.

  • You don't need to prepare every word in the dictionary to be Be a National Spelling Bee Champion.

Ease

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Speed

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Accuracy

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2023 World Spelling Championship Competition

2023 World Spelling Championship Semifinalists

Group A Group B
1st July at 10 AM CST 1st July at 2 PM CST
Meera Raut Marlene Schaff
Viraaj Chatterjee Dhruv Subramanian
Faizan Zaki Avyukt Aravindh
Simran Sanders Erdem Dulguun
Anaghasri Dandu Laasya Vangipurapu
Achyut Ethiraj Wolfgang Schaff
Rishidharan Jayakumar Kate Tuvshintulga
Jazl Jalin Hayden Hughes
Aditi Muthukumar Michelle Buyanbileg
Morgan Harms Arnav Pagadala
Om Kumbhar Margad Erdenebaatar
Ryan Himmelsbach Ananya Rao Prassanna
Vikrant Chintanaboina Anar Buren
Bruhat Soma Sristi Vaidya
Rohith Konduri Daniel Notman
Mendee Baldorj Mannat Otgontuya
Sahasraksh Battula Noah Kaye
Sidhaarth Adhisheshan Jennifer Lavigne
Alandra James DeAnne Zhu
Vedanshi Pitale Soderdene Nyamochir
Mrs. Krishna Varipilli Sri Diya Kalavakuru
Ruhita Anand Esha Marupudi
Krishna Varipilli Goodali Erdenebataar
Surya Kapu Srinidhi Rao
Uulensolongo Otgonbaatar Robinson James
Sophie Shankar Aryan Khedkar
Ishika Varipilli Sohum Sukhatankar
Isabelle Bayarbat Nikisha Bonala
Satyajeeth (Jeetu) SK Veeksha Gudivada
Srijit Raghuram Isabel Alex
Shashank Palla Oviya Amalraj
Sahil Thorat Siilen Uuganbayar
Shradha Rachamreddy Sanil Thorat
Tankhiluun Davaajargal Billy Erdene
Abhinav Pagadala Tarini Nandakumar
Rhea Salodkar Ridaansh Varshney
Kirsten Tiffany Santos Alrick James
Leo Wu Sai Lakkimsetti
Aaradhya Srisailam Aadya Vangipurapu
Milan Mishra Sam Evans
Blanche Li Shrikar Vattikuti
Rishik Madhamsetty Blake Bouwman
Sophia Davaasuren Mihir Konkapaka
Purvik Byregowda Meghna Pebbili
Lahari Gudivada Enkhjin Enkhtuvshin
Anjali Kannan




 

What is the SPWSC?

The World Spelling Championship is the first-of-its-kind major open-eligibility spelling bee, brought to you by SpellPundit. It is designed to supply a stable platform for spellers exiting the Scripps National Spelling Bee to seamlessly transition onto, one that maintains the prestige of the former while delivering a higher level of challenge and showmanship for the legends of the game to enjoy. It also aims to be an event with a broad range of appeal, being as much of an attraction for casual spelling enthusiasts looking for a test of skills and former spellers who wish to relive their bee experience as it is for hardened professionals. Having established its place at the center of this new sector of the market, SpellPundit now looks to strengthen its industry dominance while supporting the season-long infrastructure that develops around the World Championship.

WSC: The 2nd Year

The future of spelling is secured, and the events of the 2022 season have shown us that today's greatest spellers are once again prepared to compete with the greatest of years past. In this past season, we welcomed multiple competitors, including our 1st World Champion, to the ranks of the all-time greats. Far from being an outdated relic that has exhausted its ability to captivate, the spelling bee has been reborn through the work of legends old and new, and that is who the World Championship is built for. This year, we pledge to carry that ambition to new heights. While the 1st World Championship succeeded as a proof of concept, few would elevate it among the most spectacular or significant events of the 2022 schedule, let alone of all time. We acknowledge this. We understand the reasons. In our second year, we promise things will be different. With time now on our side, we will ensure all elements are tuned to the standards of the most discerning connoisseurs throughout our sphere of demand, and make the WSC a truly unmissable experience for all who love spelling, from the masters to the dabblers. This time, we promise to deliver the greatest show the spelling world has ever seen, and nothing less is satisfactory. Let the true search for the world's best speller commence.

Pre-Event Specifications

Eligibility and Registration:


  • Availability of registration is completely unrestricted, with no distinctions on the basis of age, grade level, or any other consideration. International spellers are also eligible to participate from any country. All entrants will be part of the same field.
  • The cost of registration is a flat rate of $10 per speller to enter the Qualifying Test, and an additional $40 per speller who is admitted to the official field of 100 competitors.
  • The last date for registration for the Qualifying Test is Jun 17 2023

Official Materials:


  • As with other SpellPundit events and the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the official dictionary of the World Spelling Championship is Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Online Dictionary. No other sources for word selections are currently in use. This may be subject to future review based on necessity.
  • No study lists or other pre-prepared materials will be used at any point during the World Championship, including the Qualifying Test, and material selected will not directly correspond with any particular SpellPundit or other study product.
  • Words listed with regional, dialectal, or temporal labels are valid material for the World Championship, and variant spellings bearing these labels will be accepted as correct, provided the pronunciation is identical.
  • If a word is listed in Merriam-Webster Unabridged without a pronunciation, but a pronunciation can be identified elsewhere (including on SpellPundit), that pronunciation can be applied to make the word usable. If MWU does not give an etymology for a word, an independently sourced etymology may be given as well. The following may currently be in use as secondary pronunciation sources:
  • Merriam-Webster dictionaries other than Unabridged
  • Online Collins English Dictionary (for obsolete words only)
  • SpellPundit database diacritical pronunciations
  • Pronunciations can be derived from adjacent words or variants when there is an obvious source to draw from (e.g. Lusshebourne from lushburg)

Scheduling:


  • The event will take place in the summer of each year, with the 2023 World Championship Qualifying Test scheduled for Saturday, June 24th, and the main oral event for Saturday, July 1st.
  • New to 2023, a Qualifying Test will take place the weekend before the main event (Jun 24 2023). Due to technical and time limitations, only a maximum of 100 spellers may participate in the oral rounds, so this measure hopes to encourage broader participation while maintaining capacity.
  • Also new to 2023, spellers over age 30 who pass the Qualifying Test may opt into the Senior group, competing only against other spellers in that age bracket until finals. This will take place directly after the main semifinals, and opting in or out of this will not affect your likelihood of qualifying for finals; its purpose is purely to minimize waiting time between rounds.
  • Spellers who have made the Finals in the past 5 years may skip the Qualifying Test and directly enter the semifinals for the full $50 price.

Event-Day Proceedings

Competition Format:

  • The Qualifying Test will consist of 50 spelling words of varying difficulty levels, with a 30-minute time limit. The top 100 scoring spellers on the Qualifying Test will be admitted into the main field, pending payment of the primary registration fee. Depending on attendance, the Qualifying Test may be split into groups.
  • The oral rounds will be organized as a traditional spell-off, in a virtual format using Zoom. The bee begins with all participating spellers in round 1, and finishes when the champion is named.
  • If there are 80 or more semifinal qualifiers, the semifinals will be divided into two groups; otherwise, all spellers will participate in the same meeting.
  • At the beginning of the Semifinals, all spellers must be present to hear the turn order and indicate attendance. Thereafter, spellers must only be in the meeting when it is their turn, although they are free to remain present at all times. When a speller’s turn is near, if they are not in the meeting, they will receive a notification to enter. The Attendance Judge, a new position, is responsible for issuing these notifications. If the speller is not present at their turn, their turn will be withheld to the end of the round, with the same word as they'd have otherwise received.
  • Out of the maximum 100 spellers to begin the event, the highest number of finalists who will be accepted is 15 percent of the total attendance, per group if applicable. There will be no quotas or tiebreakers to determine the amount of finalists; simply all spellers remaining after the last semifinals round will advance.
  • Spellers in the Senior group must spell for the same number of rounds as the preceding main group, with the same word difficulty levels per rounds as used in the main group, to advance to the finals. If all are eliminated before this threshold, the group ends with no qualifiers.
  • There will be no vocabulary or other question formats besides spelling used at any point in the event, including the Qualifying Test.

Speller Privileges and Officiating:


  • Spellers will be allowed to ask all questions permitted in the Scripps National Spelling Bee: repeat pronunciation, definition, language of origin, part of speech, alternate pronunciations, use in a sentence, and specific root questions according to the established convention (speller must provide pronunciation, etymology, and definition of root). The Roots Judge will answer root questions.
  • Requests for alternate definitions will also be granted at the World Championship. However, if an alternate definition has a different part of speech, pronunciation, or etymology from the primary one, it will be deemed a separate entry and not be provided.
  • Unique to this event, possible answers to the question of a word's part of speech may include "phrase" or "part of a phrase", given that such material will be more commonly used at the World Championship level. Therefore, spellers are encouraged to consider asking this question more often when unsure of a word, as its utility may be increased.
  • Spellers are also allowed to ask whether their word carries temporal, regional, or dialectal usage designators. The Chief Judge will initially inform the speller whether or not the word has a usage label, and if yes, the Roots Judge will provide the speller with the specific labels the word carries.
  • Words that are parts of phrases will be given in isolation, but the full phrase will be provided if the speller asks for the definition. For example, for the phrase "Kuiper belt", the word to spell is "Kuiper", but upon asking for the definition, the reply will begin with "The Kuiper belt is…". Additionally, sentences for such words will always include the full phrase.
  • Words that are pronounced the same as another word will always be considered homonyms, even if they are spelled the same as well. Such words can only be selected for use, however, if they are completely distinct dictionary entries with a clearly different definition and etymology from the homonym (e.g. peteca); otherwise, the entries will be considered the same word.
  • As in the Scripps National Spelling Bee rules, spellers will have two minutes to spell each word. The Timing Judge will monitor each speller’s clock.
  • If a speller believes they have been incorrectly eliminated, they may submit an appeal in accordance with universally established spelling bee appeal procedures. The Chief Judge, with assistance from the Recording Judge, will discuss and decide appeals with the officiating team.
  • The Recording Judge is also in charge of creating the official round-by-round results for the event.

Security:


  • Spellers must keep their hands clearly on screen at all times during their turn. Failure to do so will result in a warning, and repeated warnings may lead to disqualification.
  • Each speller must set up a secondary device that clearly displays both the monitor of their primary device, and any elements of the surrounding environment where an illegal resource could feasibly be hidden. This feed will be recorded along with the main stream, so any suspicious activity will be viewable should later review by officials be deemed necessary.
  • At judges’ request, spellers may be asked to scan their room or show a specific location.

End-of-Bee Procedures:


  • When the final three spellers remain in the finals, the bee will proceed to the Championship Word List. This list consists of 150 words; however, the championship phase will only go a maximum of 50 rounds, regardless of whether there are words remaining on the list.
  • If at least two of the final three spellers continue for the full 50 rounds after entering the championship phase, or if 100 words pass without an elimination at any prior stage of the bee, all remaining spellers will progress to the Tiebreaker.
  • The Tiebreaker is a speed-spelling lightning round, largely identical to that first used in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Each speller will be allotted 90 seconds to spell up to 30 words, with word information provided on presentation slides, but only the pronunciation given orally. Each remaining speller will receive the same word set. Spellers may say “pass” to skip a word.
  • The speller who gets the most words correct in the Tiebreaker is the champion; if multiple spellers spell the same number of words correctly, the speller who missed the fewest is the champion. If more than one speller has an identical number of both correct and incorrect words, co-champions are declared. The Recording Judge is responsible for providing accurate and timely scoring data.
  • No homonyms or near-homonyms, to the best of our ability at identifying the latter, will be given in the Tiebreaker.
  • If at any point all remaining spellers have misspelled 5 or more words in their last 10 rounds, the bee ends without a World Champion being named. All remaining spellers receive the 2nd prize; any unawarded funds are added to the grand prize for the following year. If the defending champion remains in the bee at this point, they retain the title.

Prizes and Honors:


  • The monetary prize distribution for the 2023 World Championship is listed as follows:

Grand Prize: $3000
2nd Prize: $1500
3rd Prize: $1000
4th Prize: $500
5th Prize: $300
6th-7th: $200
All other finalists: $100


These are subject to future increase based on the growth of the event.

  • In addition to the above, the winner is designated with the title of World Spelling Champion, and receives free exemption into future World Championships for 10 years following their most recent victory. Multiple-time World Champions receive a lifetime exemption.
  • If co-champions are declared, each receives the full grand prize and other awards of the title, and the runner-up receives the 3rd prize. If other podium positions are tied, the applicable prizes will be pooled together and split evenly between all tied spellers.
  • The honor of World Champion may also come with other special perquisites and promotions, which may differ from year to year at SpellPundit’s discretion.