4th WSC Registration Now Open! August 30th 2026
Registration for the World Spelling Championship opens at least 2 months prior to the competition, and will close one day before the scheduled date of the event.
Availability of registration is completely unrestricted, with no distinctions on the basis of age, grade level, or any other consideration.
International spellers are eligible to participate from any country.
All registration records and funds will be managed by WSO. Depending on size of attendance, there may be a preliminary test; if not, all participants will be admitted into the oral rounds, which will continue from the semifinals into the Grand Finals, and from then until a World Champion is declared.
Registration costs:
As with the Scripps National Spelling Bee, SpellPundit events, and most other competitive spelling bees, Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Online Dictionary is used as the primary word source for the World Spelling Championship. However...
New for 2026, all Merriam-Webster online dictionaries (the free, Collegiate, Medical, and Legal Dictionaries) are in use as secondary sources, and all material from them can be used. However, words found solely in sources other than Unabridged can only appear in the late stages of the Grand Finals.
No study lists or other pre-prepared materials will be used at any point during the World Spelling Championship, and material selected will not directly correspond with any particular commercial study product.
There will be no vocabulary or other question formats besides miss-and-out spelling used in the portions of the event owned and operated by WSO. Question formats used in portions conducted by SpellPundit are at their full discretion.
Words listed with regional, dialectal, or temporal usage labels are valid material for WSC, and variant spellings bearing these labels will be accepted as correct in all phases, provided the pronunciation is identical.
If a word is listed in Merriam-Webster Unabridged without a pronunciation, but a pronunciation can be identified elsewhere, that pronunciation can be applied to make the word usable (only in late stages of Grand Finals).
The following may currently be in use as secondary pronunciation sources:
Pronunciations can also be derived from adjacent words, word parts, or variants when there is an obvious source to draw from (e.g. Lusshebourne from lushburg, Cochliomyia from roots).
If Unabridged does not list etymology information for a word, an independently sourced etymology may be given for the greatest benefit of the speller. However, a word remains usable even if no etymological information can be found, as is the case with most tribal names.
New for 2026, a differing usage label alone is now considered distinguishing information between two dictionary entries. Fire up your dialectal variants! Differences in etymology, part of speech, or at least one definition remain distinguishing features, as is common practice.
All phases will be organized as a traditional miss-and-out spelling bee, in a virtual format using Zoom. The bee begins with all participating spellers in round 1, and finishes when the World Champion is named.
The event may begin with a preliminary qualifying test, depending on the volume of attendance. In such a case, the test will consist of 50 words, all standard spelling, of escalating difficulty. Spellers will be given 30 minutes to complete the test. There will be a minimum of two test-taking time slots available, with each time using a different but equally scaled test.
The highest number of finalists who will be accepted is 15 percent of the total attendance (minimum 8 finalists, maximum 15).
There will be no tiebreakers used to determine the amount of finalists; simply all spellers remaining after the round in which the field is reduced to the qualifying quota or below will advance.
The Finals will take place later in the same day as the semifinals, and will proceed as described in the End-of-Bee Procedures until the World Champion is found.
Spellers will be allowed to ask all questions permitted in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and other standard events: repeat pronunciation, definition, language of origin, part of speech, alternate pronunciations, and specific root questions according to the established convention (speller must provide pronunciation, etymology, and definition of root). Requests for sentences will be granted, but sentences are not pre-prepared
WSC has no specific restrictions on the types of root questions that may be asked, including ones based on combining forms or inflectional and derivational morphemes, such as diminutives, ISV suffixes, etc. Judges will answer to the best of their ability if there is ambiguity.
Requests for alternate definitions will also be granted in WSC. 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.
Spellers are also allowed to ask whether their word is phrased (contains a space, hyphen, apostrophe, etc.) or part of a larger phrase, or carries temporal, regional, or dialectal usage labels. This information can be asked for in isolation, or it will be provided if the speller asks for the definition or part of speech.
Words that are parts of phrases in which the other part is inconsequential ("moazagotls" in common parlance) 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 totally different 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 fully distinct dictionary entries with a clearly different definition, etymology, alternate pronunciation/s, or usage label from the homonym (e.g. peteca); otherwise, the entries will be considered interchangeable variants of the same word regardless of how Unabridged lists them (e.g. gaiassa/gyassa).
There is no strict timer enforced at any oral-round stage of the event. However, if a speller is deemed to be stalling excessively, judges reserve the right to request that they begin spelling soon, and to eliminate them for refusing to proceed.
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. Accepted appeals may result in the speller passing the round or receiving a replacement word, on a case-by-case basis. All rulings are handed down with full explanation provided.
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.
If potentially suspicious activity is detected, spellers may be asked to scan their room or show a specific location at officials' request..
When the final three spellers remain in the Grand Finals, the bee will proceed to the Championship Word List. This list consists of 150 words; however, the championship phase will only run to 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 at least 100 words pass without an elimination at any prior stage of the bee, all remaining spellers will be declared co-World Champions, with the grand prize and second prize (and third if applicable) pooled together and divided evenly between them.
There is no tiebreaker, such as a spell-off or test, currently in use at the World Spelling Championship; this may be subject to future review as circumstances demand.
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 leftover funds are awarded to the Director of WSO, in recognition of their achievement for “defeating” the field. If the defending World Champion remains in the bee at this point, they retain the title nominally.
The current monetary prize distribution for the 2025 World Spelling Championship is listed as follows, 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 victory. Multiple-time World Champions receive a lifetime exemption.
If co-champions are declared, 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 the discretion of WSO and our partners.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.