The Bee Blog

Try to relax

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 23:39

Abhijay Kodali, speller 407, finished third last year. The Texas sixth grader said said there's more pressure on him this year, but he's just trying to focus on his word. He's excited, he said, and...

Shoe hound

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 23:36

Speller 307, Shruthika Padhyis a well-known shoe hound and was sporting her new Jordan 11s for Thursday's championship competition. She spelled "therblig," one of the manual, visual...

This is fun

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 23:34

"This is fun," Dr. Bailly said to speller 5, Rishik Gandhasri. Rishik said his friends "kind of forgot the whole thing." But it'll be hard to forget this. He spelled "murrain" correctly. ...

Dallas represents

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 23:23

Sohum Sukhatankar, speller 354, is in his third Bee, but it's his first time in the finals. (He's doing well.) Sohum just spelled "urfirnis" correctly. It's a lustrous paint varying from black to r...

He did not vomit

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 23:10

"I just sounded like I vomited," said Rohan Raja, speller 462, upon pronouncing his word, "Gaeltacht." It's the Gaelic-speaking or Irish-speaking districts. The Texas seventh grader got it right. ...

Moments of levity

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:59

Erin Howard, speller 93, was thrilled to learn that her word did not have a feminine French ending. "Please say no," she said, when she asked Dr. Bailly about the root. He said it was not. "Than...

Simone is out

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:50

Simone Kaplan, speller 65, is out. Simone, a Florida seventh grader, tied for 10th place last year and 189th in 2017. She's correctly spelled words that include xystus, varsovienne, marae, Stakh...

Alice is out

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:42

Alice Liu, speller 252, is out on "Rassenkreis." It's a species having several types or subdivisions especially when exhibiting a pattern of geographical replacement of one type by another. The Mis...

More competitive

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:37

"Oh God," said Rohan Raja, speller 462. But the Texas seventh grader needn't have worried. He spelled "vintem" without trouble. It's a Portuguese coin worth twenty reales ((ray-AH-lays)) that was f...

Everyone has improved a lot

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:31

Navneeth Murali, speller 291 and last year's fifth place finisher is out. The New Jersey seventh grader misspelled "ischiocerite,"a joint of the antenna of a crustacean. He correctly...

This is a fruit

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:19

It's the start of Round 13, and there are 11 spellers left. "This is a fruit, a citrus fruit, and it's Chinese," said Simone Kaplan, speller 65, when she heard her word -- "huanglongbing." ...

Colette, of the mismatched socks

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:13

"Well, it was bound to happen sometime," Colette Giezentanner, speller 304 said, as she was eliminated. She misspelled "Chama," a member of a genus of eulamellibranchiate bivalve m...

Nicholas is out

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:08

Nicholas D'Sa, speller 101, misspelled "jalap," the dried purgative tuberous root of a Mexican plant or the powdered drug prepared from it. The California eighth grader spelled nepotism, macronutri...

Still fun

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 22:04

"Having fun yet?" Dr. Bailly asked Rishik Gandhasri, speller 5. He was. "Hi. Deep breaths," Simone Kaplan, speller 65 said. They helped, and both are still having fun. They're bot...

Imagine that

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 21:56

When he's not spelling, Christopher Serrao, speller 427, likes Giants football, Imagine Dragons and playing guitar. So how nice for the New Jersey seventh grader that his sentence for "bassanello" ...

Yolanda is out

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 21:44

"Thank you so much," said Yolanda Ni, speller 257, as she left the stage. The Mississippi eighth grader misspelled "hieracium," any plant of a very large and nearly cosmopolitan genus of weedy...

Hephzibah is out

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 21:26

Hephzibah Sujoe, speller 562, is out. The Texas seventh grader misspelled "flaser," an irregular usually streaked lens of granular texture found in a micaceous interstitial mass of rock and pr...

Aisha is out

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 21:09

Aisha Randhawa, speller 88, is the first one out. Her word was "cuirassier," a mounted soldier wearing a breastplate and backplate, often of leather; specifically : a soldier of a certain type of heav...

At the end of the round

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 20:38

There are 16 spellers -- still. In the first round of these evening finals, there have not been any misspellings. (Did we mention these kids are amazing?) ...

And we're off

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 15:29

Rishik Gandhasri, speller 5 and a California seventh grader, spelled "frailejón" correctly as the first word -- taking it down to the wire. It's a plant of a genus of perennial flowering subshrubs of...