WSC 2025 scheduling information coming soon!
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 Group Phase corresponding to the speller’s age bracket.
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.
Registration for spellers in grade 8 and below will be managed by SpellPundit, and for spellers grade 9 and above will be managed by WSO. All entrants will be eligible to compete against one another in the jointly organized Grand Finals.
Registration costs:
As with other SpellPundit-affiliated events and the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Online Dictionary is used as the primary word source for the World Spelling Championship.
New for 2025, 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 SpellPundit or other 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 labels are valid material for WSC, specifically in Open Qualifiers and Grand Finals, 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 (including on SpellPundit), 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 with tribal names.
New for 2025, 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 group or world champion is named.
The event is divided into three primary groups for the semifinal phase. SpellPundit directs the Junior Qualifiers, consisting of spellers in 4th grade and below, and Senior Qualifiers, containing spellers from 5th to 8th grade. WSO separately organizes the Open Qualifiers, made up of spellers in 9th grade and above. These may be further divided into subgroups depending on attendance.
The highest number of finalists who will be accepted from each group is 15 percent of its total attendance (minimum 5 positions).
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 Qualifiers will be continued to completion after the qualifying quota is reached. In the Qualifiers, a maximum of 10 rounds between two or three spellers will be conducted before cochamps are declared. The maximum in the Grand Finals is 50 rounds.
Spellers will be allowed to ask all questions permitted in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and other SpellPundit 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 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, 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 timer in any portion of the event owned and operated wholly or in part by WSO. This includes the Open Qualifiers and Grand Finals. However, is a speller is deemed to be stalling excessively, judges reserve the right to request that a speller begin spelling soon, and to eliminate them for refusing to proceed. Timer policies in portions conducted by SpellPundit remain at their full discretion.
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.
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.
During the portions of the event owned and operated by WSO, spellers are permitted to freely enter and exit the room when it is not their turn, in order to enable their participation even if they are simultaneously occupied with other activities. If they are not present when their turn is approaching, they will be notified by a designated official to enter the meeting.
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, currently in use at the World Spelling Championship; this may be subject to 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:
Qualifiers:
Grand Finals:
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 SpellPundit.
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