2018

The 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on May 31st, 2018. It was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, and 519 spellers participated.

Due to a change in 2018 that affected how spellers were able to advance to the National Competition, 515 competitors traveled to Washington, D.C., to compete.

Learn more

About the 91st Bee

Champion

Karthik Nemmani

McKinney, Texas

Karthik Nemmani, age 14, sponsored by Scoggins Middle School, won the $40,000 prize by correctly spelling the word “koinonia.”

Karthik attends the University of Texas at Austin and is pursuing a computer science degree. He has served as a national judge for the North South Foundation’s spelling bee program.

Location

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

at the Maryland Ballroom

Winning Word

koinonia(n)

koy-nuh-NEE-uh

an intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community.

This word is from Greek.

 

OFFICIALS

Directors

Paige P. Kimble

Judges

  • Mary Brooks
  • Blake Giddens
  • George Thampy
  • Barrie Trinkle
  • Kristin Hawkins

Pronouncers

  • Dr. Jacques Bailly
  • Dr. Brian Sietsema

SPELLER ROSTER

  • Mischa Abad
  • Alia Abou Dakka
  • Nidhi Achanta
  • Xavier Adams
  • Misha Agrawal
  • Ishaan Akula
  • Caled Albirini
  • Kyu-Carlo Alegre
  • Calvin Alexander, Jr.
  • Mishal Ali
  • Dean Alkhairy
  • Mariana Alkhouri
  • Ava Allen
  • Shifa Amankwa-Gabbey
  • Ethan Anderson
  • Azin Aneez
  • Colin Aponte
  • Adom Appiah
  • Hannah Archer
  • Sebastian Arias-Obando
  • Brayden Armes
  • Aiden Arnett
  • Rohan Arulkumar
  • Isabelle Aujla
  • Ethan Ayersman
  • Awwab Azam
  • Umar Aziz
  • Atman Balakrishnan
  • Aritra Banerjee
  • Nathaniel Barnes
  • Martius Bautista
  • Ava Camille Bautista
  • Ava Becken
  • Adrian James Beltran
  • Joseph Benson
  • Kelly Berkowitz
  • Anita Beroza
  • Alexander Besecker
  • Connor Bevan
  • Arin Bhandari
  • Evan Bishir
  • Justus Black
  • Dasha Blalock
  • Anna Boone
  • Ainsley Boucher
  • Noah Brandt
  • Paula Braun
  • Laura Breed
  • Maeve Brett-Vasko
  • Koleton Briecke
  • Haylie Brimhall
  • Dylan Brown
  • Sophia Brown
  • Millie Brown
  • Pierce Bryner
  • Garrett Bryner
  • Morgan Bumgardner
  • Natalie Burnett
  • Irene Calderon
  • Kelsie Call
  • Leilani Campos
  • Chloe Carter
  • Alisha Chakravarty
  • Srikar Chamarthi
  • Joseph Chambers
  • Addison Champion
  • Joel Chandler
  • Aubrey Charles
  • Lohith Chatragadda
  • Sharanya Chatterjee
  • Alan Chavez
  • Pranav Chemudupaty
  • Benjamin Chen
  • Jiming Chen, Jr.
  • Thomas Cherry
  • Aditya Chezhiyan
  • Roderick Chittem
  • Pavani Chittemsetty
  • Sydney Cho
  • Galen Cholbi
  • Pragya Choudhary
  • Snehal Choudhury
  • Alexander Christian
  • Alexandria Ciurlino
  • Noah Clark
  • Sophia Clark
  • Peter Clementson
  • Aiden Clerico
  • Hanna Closs
  • Marcus Cohn
  • Anson Cook
  • John Courtney
  • Ryan Crawford
  • Mattie Cull
  • Nora Cunningham
  • Daniela Danilova
  • Brooke Danz
  • Anmol Dash
  • Lindsay Davis
  • David De Coursy
  • Jordi De Jong
  • Sivasaipraneethreddy Devireddy
  • Ashley DeVore
  • Raghav Dhandi
  • Brody Dicks
  • Noah Dooley
  • Siddharth Doppalapudi
  • Daniel Doudna
  • Saagar Dubey
  • Matthew Dufour
  • Cohen Dunham
  • Lannien Dunn
  • Reagan Edson
  • Aaron Ehsan
  • Gabriel Ennin
  • Nathan Estep
  • Edan Eyal
  • William Farrell III
  • Jacob Faulk
  • Nehem Felices
  • Jaden Fellows
  • Madison Fickinger
  • David Firestone
  • Daniel Fordham
  • Robert Foster
  • Emily Fouts
  • Calvin Franke
  • Eleanor Gallagher
  • Ashrita Gandhari
  • Rishik Gandhasri
  • Ethan Garcia
  • Garv Gaur
  • Claire Gemma
  • Iscent George
  • Adith Joshua George
  • Eli Gerick
  • Hanna Ghouse
  • Landon Gibson
  • Marcus Giorza
  • Cameron Glogower
  • Jessie Godbee
  • Vikram Goddla
  • Sahas Goli
  • James Gordy
  • Robert Gorlach
  • Michael Goss
  • Immanuel Goveas
  • Vasundara Govindarajan
  • Jah’Quane Graham
  • Joel Greenly
  • Max Greenspan
  • Sophia Grierson
  • Louise Julia Grimaldo
  • Alexis Grimm
  • Thomas Gross III
  • Ayle Guevarra
  • Anika Gundlapalli
  • Lauren Guo
  • Liam Hahn
  • Shria Halkoda
  • Uzair Hammad
  • Paul Hamrick
  • Peyton Hand
  • Harrison Hanley
  • Sonika Harish
  • Tristan Harper
  • Srivarun Hathwar
  • Kelly Haven
  • Christopher Hays
  • Daniel Healy
  • Hailey Heinen
  • Lyla Heising
  • Carter Herron
  • Grace Hickey
  • Ruba Hidayath
  • Mark Hieatt
  • Caitlin Higuchi
  • Ryan Himmelsbach
  • Samantha Ho
  • Angelina Holm
  • Chloe Holoman
  • Lauren Holsapple
  • Seunga Hong
  • Erin Howard
  • Annie Huang
  • Tina Huang
  • Zekey Huang
  • Savannah Huber
  • Enya Hubers
  • Brady Hughes
  • Fetin Hussain
  • Theodore Ignatovsky
  • Finn Irving
  • Henry Iverson
  • Neel Iyer
  • Maya Jadhav
  • Pranathi Jammula
  • Madison Johnson
  • Allison Jones
  • Charity-Dakota Jordan
  • Briana Joseph
  • Riya Joshi
  • Amy Jung
  • Maya Jyothinagaram
  • Shomoy Kamal
  • Sukesh Kamesh
  • Rosy Kannankeril
  • Abhiram Kapaganty
  • Simone Kaplan
  • Arik Karim
  • Nupur Karnik
  • Ananth Kashyap
  • Isabelle Kaul
  • Taylor Kearbey
  • Cameron Keith
  • Jacob Kelley
  • Benjamin Kemp
  • Brian Kenny
  • Sarah Khoury
  • Eric Kim
  • Kyung Dong Kim
  • Noah King
  • Simon Kirschenbaum
  • Abhijay Kodali
  • Pranav Kollu
  • Hrishikesh Krishna
  • Anushka Kulkarni
  • Storrie Kulynych-Irvin
  • Avinash Kumar
  • Samhita Kumar
  • Ranitha Kumarasinghe
  • Jack Lado
  • Sarah Lahti
  • Saisurya Lakkimsetti
  • Marisa Langley
  • Sahil Langote
  • Athena Lankford
  • Isaiah Lanuza
  • Daniel Larsen
  • Linh Le
  • Nicholas Lee
  • Jayden Lee
  • Elliott Lee
  • Iann Leigh
  • Luke Lerner
  • Stephanie Lewis
  • Sky Lewit
  • Jerry Li
  • Grace Liang
  • Sarah Lilley
  • Anna Liu
  • Alice Liu
  • Nolan Lizmi
  • Nicolas Llorente Valin
  • Harini Logan
  • Anabel Loucks
  • Melodie Loya
  • Beckett Lucas-Griffin
  • Kevin Luo
  • Natalia Lutz
  • Akhil Madala
  • Kushala Madduru
  • Vishal Madhudi
  • Neil Maes
  • Vaibhavi Mahajan
  • Tanusree Makwana
  • Sravanth Malla
  • Kayleigh Malone
  • Aaron Marcev
  • Andrew Marcev
  • Dante Marinacci
  • Kristina Martos
  • Patrick McCarthy
  • Alecia McCulley
  • Iris McDonnell
  • Grace McKeegan
  • Kieran McKinney
  • Malena Medan-Pass
  • Amanda Medina
  • Shiv Mehrotra-Varma
  • Swathi Menon
  • Owen Mercer
  • Jonnen Messer
  • Isabel Messina
  • Charles Millard
  • Jack Miller
  • Mollie Miner
  • Tristan Jason Minguez
  • Kael Miranda
  • Medina Miranda
  • Dhyana Mishra
  • Aashi Mishra
  • Delaney Mitchell
  • Naysa Modi
  • Sidharth Mody
  • Karina Montoya
  • Camille Mooney
  • Joseph Moran
  • Sara Moriarty
  • Kenneth Morris
  • Neha Mothilal
  • Mera Moucharrafie
  • Jared Mueller
  • Elizabeth Muller
  • Navneeth Murali
  • Sania Naik
  • Tai Nakamura
  • Veena Namboodiri
  • Akansha Nanda
  • Pranav Nandakumar
  • Tanay Nandan
  • Delaney Nash
  • Abrar Nasser
  • Rahul Naveen
  • John Nelson
  • Karthik Nemmani
  • Srivatsav Nemmani
  • Janelle Newell
  • Jenna Ng
  • Cody Nguyen
  • Sophia Nguyen
  • Yolanda Ni
  • Manjeet Nirula
  • Matthew Noel
  • Liam Nyikos
  • Olufemi Onigbinde
  • Abigail Origer
  • Nathan Ostermann
  • Caroline Otto
  • Leila Overbeek
  • Shruthika Padhy
  • Isabella Padilla
  • Keerthi Padmanabhan
  • Abhinav Palle
  • Jashun Paluru
  • Raj Papineni
  • Rohit Paradkar
  • Aashi Parikh
  • Charity Parrott
  • Grace Parrott
  • Carlos Pasquotto
  • Sharanya Pastapur
  • Kris Patel
  • Prisha Patel
  • Aastha Patel
  • Oscar Patel
  • Deeya Patel
  • Taj Patel
  • Simran Patibanda
  • Nicole Patrao
  • Brendan Pawlicki
  • Anna Penird
  • Gia Bao Pham
  • Spencer Phillips
  • Isaac Phillips
  • Sreeram Pillai
  • Isabella Pinto
  • Caitlin Pooler
  • Nikitha Prabhu
  • Ryan Presler
  • Nicholas Pressler
  • Noah Prioste
  • Ilana Propp
  • Jasmin Pruthi
  • Ryan Raether
  • Rayaan Rahman
  • Rohan Raja
  • Nilla Rajan
  • Tanvi Rakesh
  • Jasper Ralph
  • Bharath Ram
  • Navin Ramesh
  • Ranjana Ramesh
  • Johnathan Randall
  • Aisha Randhawa
  • Rohan Rao
  • Neha Rao
  • Anisha Rao
  • Alesya Rathinasamy
  • Kabir Rathore Muthu
  • Rahul Reddy
  • Autumn Reeves
  • Reagan Remmers
  • Kedaar Rentachintala
  • Sophia Roberto
  • Sarah Roberts
  • Will Robson
  • Matthew Rodgers
  • Joshua Roodhouse Hale
  • Cassie Rust
  • Rahul Sachdev
  • Elizabeth Safford
  • Kreesha Saha
  • Ria Sai
  • Mark Salama
  • Jazelle Ray Saligumba
  • Anish Samanu
  • Mackenzie Sambroak
  • Beatrice Gale Sangangbayan
  • Una Alesandra Santos
  • Rohit Saralaya
  • Ryana Sarcar
  • Nairit Sarkar
  • Maanvi Sarwadi
  • Mira Sayegh
  • Joshua Saylor
  • Wolfgang Schaff
  • Sarah Schmid
  • Samuel Schmidt
  • Jay Schoenen
  • Olivia Schwab
  • Christopher Serrao
  • Meena Seshadri
  • Arsh Shah
  • Surabi Shanmugam
  • Saachi Sharma
  • Maggie Sheridan
  • Tobi Shorunke
  • Elizabeth Shvarts
  • Tejas Shyamsundar
  • Vihaan Sibal
  • Daniel Sibincic
  • Weston Sills
  • Tara Singh
  • Jaskarn Singh
  • Phoebe Smith
  • Ryan Smith
  • Ethan Smith
  • Torah Smith
  • Emily Snider
  • Immanuel Soh
  • Almudena Soler
  • Bryanna Sonntag
  • Jason Sorin
  • Anthony Spalvieri
  • Caroline Spivey
  • Manish Sriram
  • Nathaniel Stone
  • Sadie Storm
  • Hephzibah Sujoe
  • Sohum Sukhatankar
  • Luke Suko
  • NingXin Sun
  • Michael Sun
  • Saketh Sundar
  • Aswin Surya
  • Eleanor Tallman
  • Sameer Tangirala
  • Paarth Tara
  • Lucas Tardif
  • Dominic Taylor
  • Ritvik Teegavarapu
  • Laura Andrea Tejero
  • Anish Tejomurtula
  • Shawn Terrado
  • Madeline Thomas
  • Edmund Thomas
  • Assana Thompson
  • Helena Thompson
  • Andrew Toney
  • Lowell Torola
  • Kasey Torres
  • Anh Thu Tran
  • Annabelle Tran
  • Theresa Tran
  • Kyla Truong
  • Nicole Tsygan
  • Veer Tuliani
  • Taryn Turchi
  • Lucas Tusinean
  • Ryan Uc
  • Obiora Ude
  • Anoushka Upadhye
  • Sharvani Vadlamani
  • Nidhi Vadlamudi
  • Olivia Van Meter
  • Ali Van Tassel
  • Abigail Vanasse
  • Una VanWynsberghe
  • Amith Vasantha
  • Gauri Vashisht
  • Ojas Vatsyayan
  • Mary Elizabeth Vaughan
  • Eva Vega
  • Aidan Veress
  • Langley Vernon
  • Vishal Vinjamuri
  • Akash Vukoti
  • Ronald Walters
  • Aren Wang
  • Zoe Wang
  • Henry Warren
  • Bre’Ann Washington
  • Lexy Webster
  • Kayden Wilkins
  • Kara Willson
  • Kendal Win
  • Dale Winand
  • Nancy Winand
  • Emily Winkler
  • Daniel Wu
  • Vanessa Xiao
  • Caleb Xiao
  • Ken Yaguchi
  • Akshar Yeccherla
  • Sarah Yee
  • Shiva Yeshlur
  • Hanna Yoshida
  • Mira Yu
  • Karrissa Zanett
  • Rebekah Zeigler
  • Jaden Zhang
  • Jeff Zheng
  • Abby Zheng
  • Qi “Mark” Zheng
  • Armin Ziaee
  • Mallory Zinger
  • Benjamin Zobian
  • Winston Zuo

* Winner
** Runner-Up