2005

The 78th Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on June 2nd, 2005. It was held at the Grand Hyatt Washington, and 273 spellers participated.

This year’s winner, Anurag Kashyap, was one of only seven — out of 273 contestants — who scored perfectly on the preliminary written assessment.

Learn more

About the 78th Bee

Champion

Anurag Kashyap

Poway, California

Anurag Kashyap, age 13, sponsored by The San Diego Union-Tribune, won the $12,000 prize by correctly spelling the word “appoggiatura.”

Anu won the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament in 2008. He graduated from MIT with a master’s in engineering, and is now a principal product manager for Synapse Health. He previously was a product manager at Alto Pharmacy and Pinterest.

Location

Grand Hyatt Washington

at the Independence Ballroom

Winning Word

appoggiatura(n)

uh-pah-juh-TU-ruh

an accessory embellishing note or tone preceding an essential melodic note or tone and usually written as a note of smaller size.

This word came from Italian, which formed it from a Latin word.

OFFICIALS

Directors

Paige P. Kimble

Judges

  • Mary Brooks
  • Dr. Sandra C. Harrell
  • Dr. Ed Low
  • Blake Giddens
  • Dr. Michelle M. Mehta

Pronouncers

  • Dr. Jacques Bailly
  • Dr. Brian Sietsema

SPELLER ROSTERS

  • Phillip Anthony Acevedo
  • Kaleb John Adam
  • Anjay Ajodha
  • Charley Allegar
  • Krunal Dhaval Amin
  • Nidharshan S. Anandasivam
  • Sarah Bruce Anderson
  • Austin Shea Andrews
  • Emlia E.G. Armstead
  • Aravind Arun
  • Jack Ausick
  • Sonny Bandigas
  • Rachel Claire Barrett
  • Jana Beth Basler
  • Marjorie Elizabeth Bateman
  • Alex L. Benjamin
  • Ronald John D. Benoit
  • Matthew Betley
  • Chelsey Ann Bipat
  • Caitlin Mae Bippes
  • Jenny Bivens
  • Jennifer Eileen Black
  • Alysia Black
  • Alexander Bohurat
  • Lauren Ashley Bradshaw
  • Forrest A. Brazeal
  • Laura Ann Brown
  • Ben Brown
  • Katie L. Brown
  • Dorian Burks
  • Ginny Butler
  • Emily Cage
  • Sean Patrick Carpenter
  • Steffen M. Castle
  • Daniel P. Chacko
  • Rajdeep Chahal
  • Elicia C. Chamberlin
  • Heejae Chang
  • Saptarshi Chaudhuri
  • Priyanka Chavan
  • Yeeva Cheng
  • Michael Christie
  • Albert Chung
  • James David Keane Clark
  • Katharine Close
  • Megan Elaine Courtney
  • Ronnie Cowsert
  • Katherine F. Cross
  • Tyler Leslie Curtis
  • Paul S. Cyr Jr.
  • Sarah Ann Daigle
  • Sharon Catigbac Mores Daugherty
  • Nate Davidson
  • Ben Davis
  • Riley Judith Davis
  • Lindeon Sherlock Davis
  • Aliya Robin Deri
  • Jamie Daniel Deshaies
  • Jacob Allen DeVine
  • Jamie Ding
  • Anqi Dong
  • Amanda G. Dorton
  • Kimberely Anne Doudna
  • Jordan H. Driskill
  • Alexis Lionel Ducote
  • Melanie Joy Due
  • Spencer Bradford Early
  • Dovie Eisner
  • Dheena Marie Ebuen Elayda
  • Ike U. Elele
  • Sultan Elzeini
  • Dominic Ranz Ebarle Errazo
  • Matthew C. Evans
  • Katie A. Evans
  • Stacia Christine Firebaugh
  • Ciarra Elisse Flores
  • Asami Katherine Floyd
  • Levi J. Foster
  • Amanda Claire Foy
  • Allison Frankfother
  • Brianna French
  • Carlie Marie Gakstatter
  • Abha A. Gallewale
  • Matthew Giese
  • Morgan Foster Gilliam
  • Zachary D. Gillooly
  • Ashwini A. Gokhale
  • Brian Douglas Good
  • Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan
  • Jordan A. Green
  • Alexandra M. Green
  • Thomas Guthrie
  • Finola Mei Hwa Hackett
  • Sean F. Hadley
  • Josiah A. Hamill
  • Casey Elizabeth Hampsey
  • Kristen Brittany Hanna
  • Nathan Jun Harkema
  • Matt Harlow
  • Alyssa Mariel Hasbrouck
  • Sami Hashmi
  • Athena Deren Heck
  • Danielle Mary Heffner
  • Rachel Lee Hernandez
  • Abigail Rose Heroth
  • Tracey Hinder
  • Tabitha Lee Hindman
  • Edwin Ho
  • Truc Viet Ho
  • Austin W. Hoke
  • Saryn Rebecca Hooks
  • George A. Hornedo
  • Jonathan C. Horton
  • Andrew B. Huang
  • Jacob Matthew Hubbard
  • Elliott P. Huck
  • Jennifer A. Hurd
  • Jessy J. Hwang
  • Katelynn Marie Inman
  • Mallory Irwinsky
  • Bonny Jain
  • Michael Ryan Jeackett
  • Simon Gregory Jerome
  • Ashleigh Johnson
  • Erin M. Jones
  • Joseph M. Jose
  • Carrie-Jean Elizabeth Joye
  • J. Kahl
  • Phil S. Kaiser
  • Andrew Lokomaikai’keakua Kaleohano
  • Jasmine A. Kaneshiro
  • Kevin T. Kaneshiro
  • Katherine Michelle Kappelmann
  • Rachel S. Karas
  • Anurag Kashyap
  • Alan J. Keep
  • Ellyanna Sara Kessler
  • Sarah M. Kofler
  • Nikhil B. Koganti
  • Tristan B. Kooker
  • Nikki Kay Kuna
  • Isaac P. Kurth
  • Marlee Rose Labroo
  • Nitish Lakhanpal
  • Hannah Kristin Laskey
  • Calvin O. Lau
  • Evan Zachary Lawler
  • Samuel L. Lawson
  • Reed Lawson
  • John Lee
  • Abraham H. Lee
  • Kasey Leger
  • Joseph Bonora Levri
  • Kaleo O’Kalani Li
  • Liane Rae S. Libranda
  • Anna Laurie Lilly
  • Ava Lintz
  • Erica Kay Little
  • Steven A. Lopez
  • Jason Loucks
  • Mohamed El Mais
  • Nicholas J. Marcucci
  • Alexander Seth Martin
  • Meg Mathis
  • Sydney Kathleen Matlock
  • Aidan S. Matthews
  • Christian Noel Medina
  • Nicole Mae San Mateo Mercado
  • Suma M. Metla
  • Kim Meyer
  • Brent Matthew Milovac
  • John Minnich
  • Sameer Mishra
  • Arjun R. Modi
  • Tyler Philip Morrison
  • David Ray Nabhan
  • Claire Grace Nieman
  • Evan M. O’Dorney
  • Kimberly Rachel Campbell Olson
  • Elliott P. Orr
  • Larisa L. Pachuta
  • Benjamin D. Palmer
  • David Palmer
  • Joshua Michael Partain
  • Mercy Parungo
  • Midhat Patel
  • Samir Sudhir Patel
  • Sarah Elizabeth Pauley
  • Michael Shane Paynter
  • Cari Peacock
  • Stacey-Ann Yanique Pearson
  • Christian Yvette Perez
  • Charlie James Perkins
  • Andrew T. Peters
  • Larissa Ngan-Trang N. Pham
  • Elizabeth Ann Pisaniello
  • Anita Pitts
  • Olivia Mary Powell
  • Tricia Ann Powles
  • Mehron Hannah Price
  • Jaclyn Ann Protz
  • Eesha Purohit
  • Dylan L. Rabb
  • Anjali Chitra Raghuram
  • Maheen A. Rana
  • Nilesh K. Raval
  • Manasa J. Reddy
  • Amanda M. Redhouse
  • Jessy Johanna Reed
  • Benjamin Thomas Reinig
  • Alex Grady Renny
  • David J. Ring
  • Kyle Louis Rogacion
  • Charlotte J. Roose
  • Jordynne L.V. Ropat
  • Kiley R. Rosnes
  • Hong De Sa
  • Bahareh Yaseen Saadatmand
  • Allion A. Salvador
  • Sonal S. Sathe
  • Margaret Dorothea Scholten
  • Christopher Dale Scott
  • Elizabeth Anne Scullin
  • Katherine Morrison Seymour
  • Shrey P. Shah
  • Akshat Shekhar
  • Joseph P. Shepherd
  • Victoria Shih
  • Brian Shivers
  • Hannah Rae Smith
  • Cole T. Smith
  • Laura A. Snider
  • Daniel Benjamin Snyder
  • Cherish M. Stafford
  • Victoria Suzanne Stanley
  • Travis Lee Stephens
  • Henry Breneman Stewart
  • Aaron Thomas Sulick
  • James H. Sun
  • Sahiti Surapaneni
  • Jessica A. Swigonski
  • Danielle Mary Tacey
  • John L.T. Tamplin
  • Rajiv Tarigopula
  • Michael Allen Tayag
  • Joshua Tyson Tenhet
  • Tia Natasha-Elizabeth Thomas
  • Kent W. Toland
  • Alyssa Nicole Tomaskovic
  • Jacob Bruce Trewartha
  • Paul Rainier Valencia
  • Heather Elizabeth van Stolk
  • Nektarios Vasilottos
  • Vaibhav S. Vavilala
  • Abiram Viswanath
  • Carolyn Nguyen Vu
  • Benjamin Zachary Walter
  • Yiping Wang
  • Sarah J. Wang
  • William Waitman Weitzel
  • Megan Michelle Wells
  • Evan Arthur Wells
  • Matthew C. White
  • Emmy Frances Williams
  • Marshall Kelly Winchester
  • Steven Patrick Wolfe
  • Nathan Jun Yang
  • Rebecca Yang
  • Sue Ann P. Yap
  • Kendra Guthrie Yoshinaga
  • Taylor Young
  • Theodore Yuan
  • Harvest L. Zhang

* Winner
** Runner-Up