unbeelievable

The Bee is turning 100

take home a piece of Bee history!

BEELOVED: Celebrating 100 Years of the Scripps National Spelling Bee is a commemorative coffee table book with more than 150 pages of National Spelling Bee history. Preorder your copy today and receive 20% off the list price.

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Stories from the Archives

1946

John McKinney gets a kiss from his mother after winning the 1946 Bee with the word “semaphore.”

1974

All 80 national competitors attended a reception at the White House with First Lady Pat Nixon.

1997

E-U-O-N-Y-M! Rebecca Sealfon jumps in the air after shout-spelling her winning word.

2021

Zaila Avant-garde makes history as the first Black American champion of the Bee.

2019

Can you spell Octochamps? Eight spellers beat the dictionary in an unprecedented tie.

1985

Balu Natarajan answers questions from national media after becoming the first Indian American champion of the Bee.

1950

Diana Reynard and Colquitt Dean were named the very first co-champions after exhausting three supplementary word lists.

I still get chills when I say I competed at the Scripps National Spelling Bee because it was such an iconic American experience.

Kimmie Collins – Classes of 2013 and 2014

I think that the spelling bee can keep growing and growing, just as it has for 100 years. It will blaze a path into the future and continue to be this great institution 100 years in the future.

Ben Zimmer – Vocabulary strategist, judge

The Bee is a staple of American culture. It’s just as important as football or basketball, except that it’s a showcase of intelligence and of excitement for learning.

Vanya Shivashankar – 2015 champion, pronouncer and host

A bee, whether it’s a barn raising bee or a quilting bee or a harvest bee or a spelling bee, is a place for the community to gather together and celebrate and build something wonderful.

Dr. Jacques Bailly – 1980 champion, head pronouncer

Everyone, whether or not they’ve competed at Scripps, has a spelling bee story.

Sameer Mishra – 2008 champion, judge

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the Super Bowl of spelling. This is the most intense competition happening in one evening for the entire country.

Adam Symson – CEO, The E.W. Scripps Company

The Bee has made a lasting impression because of how it reaches children across the country in every zip code and every type of school. Everyone has a story about when they competed in their second-grade spelling bee.

George Thampy – 2000 champion, judge

The Bee community means family, love, and encouragement. You can see that across all the different groups and departments that make the Bee happen.

Cybelle Weeks – Senior Director of Operations

Decade Highlights

1940s

A tumultuous decade for the Bee and the world, the 1940s included a three-year hiatus of the program due to World War II.

1950s

This decade included the first and second set of co-champions for the Bee.

1980s

A decade of growth for the Bee, the 1980s included the Bee’s first Indian American champion and 200+ speller field.

1990s

In the 1990s, the Bee entered into a 25+ year partnership with ESPN, bringing all the word-by-word action to consistent viewership for the first time in its history.

2000s

This decade saw the Bee in an Academy Award-nominated documentary and its first prime time broadcast.

2010s

The 2010s included the addition of vocabulary to the National Competition as well as the first co-champions in 50 years.

did you know?

The winning word for the 1st Bee was gladiolus.

This word is from Latin.

any plant of a genus of plants native chiefly to Africa with a few native to Europe and Asia that have upright sword-shaped leaves and spikes of brilliantly colored irregular flowers arising from flattened stems.

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Timeline Hive

2024

2023

2022

2021

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

beelieve in the power of words

In celebration of our centennial, the Bee has launched Beelieve, a fund in partnership with the Scripps Howard Fund to make spelling bees more accessible for schools and communities across the country.

Thanks to a generous match from the Adam R. Scripps Foundation, your $100 donation can pay for a Title I school’s access to the spelling bee program for an entire year.

give today!