Dallas teen wins grand prize in national spelling bee

A 13-year-old from Dallas is the winner of the 100th Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Faizan Zaki on Thursday night took the top prize after correctly spelling the word “éclaircissement,” according to Scripps. The French word is a term referring to the clearing up of something obscure, Scripps said.

Faizan almost didn’t win after stumbling on the word “commelina,” which describes a class of flowers, according to a report by the Associated Press. Starting with “K-A-M,” he appeared to instantly recognize where he went wrong. This mistake, made in the eighth round of the competition, came after the other two contestants also failed to spell their words correctly.

The other contestants, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane, missed their words again in the final round. This allowed Faizan to seize the win.

As Faizan finished spelling the winning word, he fell to the ground and was showered with applause and confetti.

His speed set him apart from other competitors, according to the Associated Press. Typically, contestants ask questions once they are told the word, spell slow, and keep a low profile.

Has he participated in the spelling bee before? Fazian has been spelling for around half his life. He started at age seven as a wild card entry before qualifying again in 2023 and 2024, when he came in second, according to his biography on the Scripps website. That earned him a $25,000 prize. As the winner of this year’s spelling bee, Faizan earned a grand prize of $50,000 from Scripps, as well as $2,500 from Merriam-Webster and $1,000 from Scholastic to be donated to his college of choice.

Dig deeper: Read Kate Stimson’s report on a variant spelling of “women” accepted by the competition.