The Contest Rules of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee exist in PDF format. Click here to obtain a copy of the national rules.

1. Eligibility: A speller qualifying for the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., must meet these requirements:

(1) The speller must not have won a Scripps National Spelling Bee championship in Washington, D.C.

(2) The speller must attend a school that is officially enrolled with the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

(3) The speller must not have passed beyond the eighth grade on or before February 1, 2008.

(4) The speller must not have repeated fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth grade for the purpose of extending spelling bee eligibility. If the speller has repeated fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth grade, the speller must notify the Scripps National Spelling Bee of the circumstances of grade repetition by March 26, 2008; and the Scripps National Spelling Bee will, in its sole discretion, determine the speller’s eligibility status on or before April 30, 2008.

(5) The speller—or the speller's parent, legal guardian, or school official acting on the speller’s behalf—must not have declared to another entity an academic classification higher than eighth grade for any purpose, including high school graduation equivalency or proficiency examinations and/or examinations such as the PSAT, SAT, or ACT.

(6) The speller must not have earned the legal equivalent of a high school diploma.

(7) The speller must not have completed nor ever been enrolled in more than six high school–level courses or two college-level courses on or before April 30, 2008.

(8) The speller must not bypass or circumvent normal school activity to study for spelling bees. The Scripps National Spelling Bee defines normal school activity as adherence to at least four courses of study other than language arts, spelling, Latin, Greek, vocabulary, and etymology for at least four hours per weekday for 34 of the 38 weeks between September 1, 2007, and May 24, 2008.

(9) The speller must not have reached his/her 15th birthday on or before September 1, 2007.

(10) The speller must have won a final local spelling bee on or after February 1, 2008.

(11) The speller must not have been disqualified at any level of a sponsor’s spelling bee program between June 2007 and April 2008. Further, if the speller becomes disqualified at any level of a sponsor’s spelling bee program before April 2008, the speller will be disqualified from competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and may not seek advancement in the Bee program through another sponsor and/or enrollment in another school.

(12) The speller, upon qualifying for the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., must submit a completed Champion Bio Form, a Certification of Eligibility Form, a signed Appearance Consent and Release Form, and a hard copy of a photo to the Scripps National Spelling Bee no later than March 26, 2008. The speller will notify the Bee, at least 24 hours prior to the first day of competition in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., if any of the statements made on the Certification of Eligibility Form are no longer true or require updating. The speller’s sponsor will provide access to the necessary forms.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee may disqualify prior to or during competition any speller who is not in compliance with any of the above Eligibility Requirements; and it may—at any time between the conclusion of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee and April 30, 2009—require any speller who is found to have not been in compliance with any of the Eligibility Requirements to forfeit any prizes, rank, and other benefits accorded to the speller as a result of participation in the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

2. Format: The competition has four distinct segments: preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship finals.

The preliminaries consist of Round One—a test delivered by computer, and Round Two—a round of oral spelling onstage. Spellers must complete the Round One test in Washington, D.C., between 2:00 p.m. Sunday, May 25, and 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. In the Round One test, a speller will spell 50 words using a computer keyboard. Only 25 of the 50 spellings will count toward the speller’s preliminaries score. The 25 words that count toward a speller’s preliminaries score will be labeled “score words” by Bee officials prior to May 25, but score word status will not be apparent to a speller taking the Round One test. Bee officials will publicly identify score words following the conclusion of the preliminaries on Thursday, May 29.
 
The quarterfinals consist of two rounds of oral spelling.

The semifinals consist of rounds of oral spelling and will likely be concurrent with the competition’s live broadcast on ESPN. If the ESPN broadcast concludes during a semifinal round, spellers who have not spelled in the round will advance to the championship finals for the conclusion of the last semifinals round.

The championship finals consist of rounds of oral spelling and are concurrent with the competition’s live broadcast on ABC unless the ABC broadcast begins in a round that began during the semifinals. The championship finals will not officially commence until the last semifinals round has concluded, and prizes will be awarded accordingly.
 
All spellers who have not been eliminated from the competition spell one word in each round.

3. Official dictionary and source of words: Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and its addenda section, copyright 2002, Merriam-Webster, (Webster’s Third) is the final authority for the spelling of words. All words given in competition are entries in Webster’s Third. If more than one spelling is listed for a word that the pronouncer has provided for the speller to spell, any of these spellings will be accepted as correct if all of the following three criteria are met: (1) The pronunciations of the words are identical, (2) the definitions of the words are identical, and (3) the words are clearly identified as being standard variants of each other. Spellings at other locations having temporal labels (such as archaic, obsolete), stylistic labels (such as substand, nonstand), or regional labels (such as North, Midland, Irish) which differ from main entry spellings not having these status labels will not be accepted as correct.

4. Eliminations before the quarterfinals: In the preliminaries there are no eliminations. Instead, spellers receive one point for each score word spelled correctly on the Round One test. Also, in the oral spelling segment of the preliminaries, spellers receive three points for a correct spelling and zero points for an incorrect spelling. The potential maximum combined score that a speller may achieve for spelling in the preliminaries is 28.

Maximum of 100: Immediately after the preliminaries a “maximum of 100” standard is applied to spellers’ scores accrued during the preliminaries. Spellers’ scores are plotted on a chart. Beginning at 28 on the chart, spellers at each consecutive scoring level are added until a sum of no more than 100 spellers has been attained. All remaining spellers are eliminated. All spellers eliminated prior to the quarterfinals are tied for the same place.

5. Eliminations due to misspelling during the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship finals: Upon incorrectly spelling a word, the speller is eliminated from the competition, except as provided in Rule 12. All spellers eliminated in the same round are tied for the same place.

6. Progression of competition: At the beginning of any round in which either two or three spellers remain, the pronouncer will move to the 25-word championship section of the word list. If a champion does not emerge in the course of administering these final 25 words, the remaining spellers will be declared co-champions. In the event that a round beginning with more than either two or three spellers ends with only one speller to begin the next and perhaps final round, the pronouncer will not move to the championship section at that point in the competition.

7. Time constraints: The speller’s time at the microphone has a limit of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Time begins when the pronouncer first pronounces the word. For the first 1 minute and 45 seconds, the speller will have the benefit of viewing a monitor displaying a traffic light graphic in green light mode. After 1 minute and 45 seconds, the monitor will show the traffic light graphic in yellow light mode and will also show the time clock as it counts up to the 2-minute mark. At the 2-minute mark, the monitor will show the traffic light graphic in red light mode and will also show a countdown of the remaining 30 seconds. The judges and pronouncer will not communicate with the speller during the final 30 seconds (red light mode). The judges will disqualify any speller who does not provide a complete spelling before the expiration of time (0 seconds in red light mode).

8. Special needs: The Scripps National Spelling Bee strives to provide accommodation for spellers who have physical challenges. All requests for accommodation of special needs involving sight, hearing, speech, or movement should be directed in writing to the director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee before April 30, 2008. The judges have discretionary power to amend spelling requirements on a case-by-case basis for spellers with diagnosed medical conditions involving sight, hearing, speech, or movement.

9. Pronouncer’s role: The pronouncer strives to pronounce words according to the diacritical markings in Webster’s Third.

Homonyms: If a word has one or more homonyms, the pronouncer indicates which word is to be spelled by defining the word.

Speller’s requests: In oral competition the pronouncer responds to the speller’s requests for a definition, sentence, part of speech, language(s) of origin, and alternate pronunciation(s). When presented with requests for alternate pronunciations, the pronouncer or associate pronouncer checks for alternate pronunciations in Webster’s Third. If the speller wishes to ask if the dictionary lists a specific root word as the root of the word to be spelled, the speller must specify a pronunciation of the root (not a spelling), its language, and its definition. The pronouncer will grant all such requests as long as they are in accordance with time constraints outlined in Rule 7.

Pronouncer’s sense of helpfulness: The pronouncer may offer word information—without the speller having requested the information—if the pronouncer senses that the information is helpful and the information appears in the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee word list or Webster’s Third.

10. Judges’ role: The judges uphold the rules and determine whether or not words are spelled correctly. The decisions of the judges are final.

Interaction with the speller: Because seeing lip movements may be critical in detecting misunderstandings or misspellings, the judges encourage spellers to face them when pronouncing and spelling the word.

Misunderstandings: The judges participate in the exchange of information between the speller and pronouncer if they feel that clarification is needed. Also, the judges listen carefully to the speller’s pronunciation of the word; and, if they sense that the speller has misunderstood the word, the judges work with the speller and pronouncer until they are satisfied that reasonable attempts have been made to assist the speller in understanding the word within the time constraints described in Rule 7. While the judges are responsible for attempting to detect a speller’s misunderstanding, it is sometimes impossible to detect a misunderstanding until a spelling error has been made. The judges are not responsible for the speller’s misunderstanding.

Pronouncer errors: The judges compare the pronouncer’s pronunciation with the diacritical markings in the word list. If the judges feel that the pronouncer’s pronunciation does not match the pronunciation specified in the diacritical markings, the judges direct the pronouncer to correct the error as soon as it is detected.

Disqualifications for reasons other than clear misspelling: The judges will disqualify a speller (1) who, prior to the conclusion of the preliminaries on May 29, discloses any portion of the Round One test content to a Web site or individual, including a parent or legal guardian; (2) who refuses a request to start spelling; (3) who does not approach the microphone when it is time to receive the word; (4) who engages in unsportsmanlike conduct; (5) who, in the process of retracing a spelling, alters the letters or sequence of letters from those first uttered; or (6) who, in the process of spelling, utters unintelligible or nonsense sounds.

Speller activities that do not merit disqualification: The judges may not disqualify a speller (1) for failing to pronounce the word either before or after spelling it, (2) for asking a question, or (3) for noting or failing to note the capitalization of a word.

11. Speller’s role: The speller makes an effort to face the judges and pronounce the word for the judges before spelling it and after spelling it. The speller while facing the judges makes an effort to utter each letter distinctly and with sufficient volume to be understood by the judges. The speller may ask the pronouncer to say the word again, define it, use it in a sentence, provide the part of speech, provide the language(s) of origin, and/or provide an alternate pronunciation or pronunciations. The speller may also ask root word questions that meet the specifications delineated in Rule 9.

Misunderstandings: The speller is responsible for any misunderstanding of the word unless (1) the pronouncer never provided a correct pronunciation; (2) the pronouncer provided incorrect information regarding the definition, part of speech, or language of origin; or (3) the speller correctly spelled a homonym of the word and the pronouncer failed to either offer a definition or distinguish the homonyms.

12. End-of-bee procedure:

If all spellers in a round misspell: If none of the spellers remaining in the spelling bee at the start of a round spells a word correctly during that round, all remain in the competition and a new round begins.

If only one speller in a round spells correctly: If only one speller spells correctly in a round, a new one-word round begins and the speller is given an opportunity to spell the next word on the list (anticipated winning word). If the speller succeeds in correctly spelling the anticipated winning word in this one-word round, the speller is declared the champion.

If a speller misspells the anticipated winning word in a one-word round: A new round begins with all the spellers who spelled (correctly and incorrectly) in the previous round. These spellers spell in their original order.