As the final pre-competition meeting of the Scripps National Spelling Bee鈥檚 word selection panel stretches into its seventh hour, the pronouncers no longer seem to care.
Before panelists can debate the words picked for the bee, they need to hear each word and its language of origin, part of speech, definition and exemplary sentence read aloud. Late in the meeting, lead pronouncer Jacques Bailly and his colleagues 鈥� so measured in their pacing and meticulous in their enunciation during the bee 鈥� rip through that chore as quickly as possible. No pauses. No apologies for flubs.
By the time of this gathering, two days before the bee, the word list is all but complete. Each word has been vetted by the panel and slotted into the appropriate round of the nearly century-old annual competition to identify the English language鈥檚 best speller.
For decades, the word panel鈥檚 work has been a closely guarded secret. This year, Scripps 鈥� a Cincinnati-based media company 鈥� granted The Associated Press exclusive access to the panelists and their pre-bee meeting, with the stipulation that The AP would not reveal words unless they were cut from the list.
THEY鈥橰E TOUGH ON WORDS
The 21 panelists sit around a makeshift, rectangular conference table in a windowless room tucked inside the convention center outside Washington where the bee is staged every year. They are given printouts including words Nos. 770-1,110 鈥� those used in the semifinal rounds and beyond 鈥� with instructions that those sheets of paper cannot leave the room.
Hearing the words aloud with the entire panel present 鈥� laptops open to Merriam-Webster鈥檚 Unabridged dictionary 鈥� sometimes illuminates problems. That鈥檚 what happened late in Sunday鈥檚 meeting. Kavya Shivashankar, the 2009 champion, an obstetrician/gynecologist and a recent addition to the panel, chimed in with an objection.
The word gleyde (pronounced 鈥済lide鈥�), which means a decrepit old horse and is only used in Britain, has a near-homonym 鈥� glyde 鈥� with a similar but not identical pronunciation and the same meaning. Shivashankar says the variant spelling makes the word too confusing, and the rest of the panel quickly agrees to spike gleyde altogether. It won鈥檛 be used.
鈥淣ice word, but bye-bye,鈥� pronouncer Kevin Moch says.
For the panelists, the meeting is the culmination of a yearlong process to assemble a word list that will challenge but not embarrass the 230 middle- and elementary-school-aged competitors 鈥� and preferably produce a champion within the two-hour broadcast window for Thursday night鈥檚 finals.
The panel鈥檚 work has changed over the decades. From 1961 to 1984, according to James Maguire鈥檚 book 鈥淎merican Bee,鈥� creating the list was a one-man operation overseen by Jim Wagner, a Scripps Howard editorial promotions director, and then by Harvey Elentuck, a then-MIT student who approached Wagner about helping with the list in the mid-1970s.
The panel was created in 1985. The current collaborative approach didn鈥檛 take shape until the early 鈥�90s. Bailly, the 1980 champion, joined in 1991.
鈥淗arvey 鈥� made the whole list,鈥� Bailly says. 鈥淚 never met him. I was just told, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e the new Harvey.鈥欌��
IT鈥橲 NOT JUST PICKING WORDS
This year鈥檚 meeting includes five full-time bee staffers and 16 contract panelists. The positions are filled via word of mouth within the spelling community or recommendations from panelists. The group includes five former champions: Barrie Trinkle (1973), Bailly, George Thampy (2000), Sameer Mishra (2008) and Shivashankar.
Trinkle, who joined the panel in 1997, used to produce the majority of her submissions by reading periodicals like The New Yorker or The Economist.
鈥淥ur raison d鈥檈tre was to teach spellers a rich vocabulary that they could use in their daily lives. And as they got smarter and smarter, they got more in contact with each other and were studying off the same lists, it became harder to hold a bee with those same types of words,鈥� Trinkle says.
Now, more often than not she goes directly to the source 鈥� Merriam-Webster鈥檚 Unabridged. That鈥檚 easier than it used to be.
鈥淭he dictionary is on the computer and is highly searchable in all kinds of ways 鈥� which the spellers know as well. If they want to find all the words that entered the language in the 1650s, they can do that, which is sometimes what I do,鈥� Trinkle says. 鈥淭he best words kind of happen to you as you鈥檙e scrolling around through the dictionary.鈥�
Not everyone on the panel submits words. Some work to ensure that the definitions, parts of speech and other accompanying information are correct; others are tasked with ensuring that words of similar difficulty are asked at the right times in the competition; others focus on crafting the bee鈥檚 new multiple-choice vocabulary questions. Those who submit words, like Trinkle and Mishra, are given assignments throughout the year to come up with a certain number at a certain level of difficulty.
Mishra pulls his submissions from his own list, which he started when he was a 13-year-old speller. He gravitates toward 鈥渢he harder end of the spectrum.鈥�
鈥淭hey are fun and challenging for me and they make me smile, and I know if I was a speller I would be intimidated by that word,鈥� says the 28-year-old Mishra, who just finished his MBA at Harvard. 鈥淚 have no fear about running out (of words), and I feel good about that.鈥�
HOW THE BEE HAS EVOLVED
The panel meets a few times a year, often virtually, to go over words, edit definitions and sentences, and weed out problems. The process seemed to go smoothly through the 2010s, even amid a proliferation of so-called , many catering to offspring of highly educated, first-generation Indian immigrants 鈥� a group that has come to dominate the competition.
In 2019, a confluence of factors 鈥� among them, a wild-card program that allowed multiple spellers from competitive regions to reach nationals 鈥� produced an unusually deep field of spellers. Scripps had to use the toughest words on its list just to cull to a dozen finalists. The bee ended in an , and there was no shortage of .
Scripps, however, didn鈥檛 fundamentally change the way the word panel operates. It brought in younger panelists more attuned to the ways contemporary spellers study and prepare. And it made format changes designed to identify a sole champion. The wild-card program was scrapped, and Scripps added onstage vocabulary questions and a lightning-round tiebreaker.
The panel also began pulling words avoided in the past. Place names, trademarks, words with no language of origin: As long as a word isn鈥檛 archaic or obsolete, it鈥檚 fair game.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e started to understand they have to push further into the dictionary,鈥� says Shourav Dasari, a 20-year-old former speller and a co-founder with his older sister Shobha of SpellPundit, which sells study guides and hosts a popular online bee. 鈥淟ast year, we started seeing stuff like tribal names that are some of the hardest words in the dictionary.鈥�
THERE鈥橲 A METICULOUSNESS TO IT ALL
Members of the panel insist they worry little about other bees or the proliferation of study materials and private coaches. But those coaches and entrepreneurs spend a lot of time thinking about the words Scripps is likely to use 鈥� often quite successfully.
Dasari says there are roughly 100,000 words in the dictionary that are appropriate for spelling bees. He pledges that 99% of the words on Scripps鈥� list are included in SpellPundit鈥檚 materials. Anyone who learns all those words is all but guaranteed to win, Dasari says 鈥� but no one has shown they can do it.
鈥淚 just don鈥檛 know when anybody would be able to completely master the unabridged dictionary,鈥� Dasari says.
Since the bee resumed after its 2020 pandemic cancellation, the panel has been scrutinized largely for the vocabulary questions, which have added , knocking out some of the most gifted spellers even if they don鈥檛 misspell a word. Last year鈥檚 champion, Harini Logan, on a vocabulary word, 鈥減ullulation鈥� 鈥� only to be reinstated minutes later after arguing that her answer could be construed as correct.
鈥淭hat gave us a sense of how very, very careful we need to be in terms of crafting these questions,鈥� says Ben Zimmer, the language columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a chief contributor of words for the vocabulary rounds.
Zimmer is also sensitive to the criticism that some vocabulary questions are evaluating the spellers鈥� cultural sophistication rather than their mastery of roots and language patterns. This year鈥檚 vocabulary questions contain more clues that will guide gifted spellers to the answers, he says.
There will always be complaints about the word list, but making the competition as fair as possible is the panel鈥檚 chief goal. Missing hyphens or incorrect capitalization, ambiguities about singular and plural nouns or transitive and intransitive verbs 鈥� no question is too insignificant.
鈥淭his is really problematic,鈥� Trinkle says, pointing out a word that has a homonym with a similar definition.
Scripps editorial manager Maggie Lorenz agrees: 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to bump that word entirely.鈥�
Ben Nuckols, The Associated Press
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