It's that time of year a-g-a-i-n! The Scripps National Spelling Bee is back for the 90th year, with 291 young word wizards between the ages of 6 and 15 going after the top prize.
According to the event's organizers, about 11 million children competed to qualify for the spelling bee over the spring. Among them is 6-year-old Edith Fuller from Tulsa, OK, who originally qualified for the competition in March when she was still 5 years old. According to Scripps, Edith is the youngest child to ever compete in the spelling bee. She also wants to be a professor of zoology, a discipline which we are 100% sure she knows how to spell out.
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On Wednesday, each of the 291 competitors got the chance to spell two words on stage, with the top 50 spellers moving on to Thursday's finals. The process was simple: Those who misspelled a word were automatically eliminated. (Sorry, kiddos!) Those who didn't make a mistake were at the mercy of what they scored in the written spelling and vocabulary test they took on Tuesday.
As the competition unfolded at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington, D.C., #SpellingBee was trending on Twitter for a great part of the day, with hardcore fans and newbies alike tweeting about it.
Naturally, there were puns and cute jokes, because how could anyone resist?
Murdered it. #SpellingBee pic.twitter.com/szH9FpixwL
— Christine (@cootiebanini) May 31, 2017
#spellingbee pic.twitter.com/sbJSEkmRor
— SouthAsianSpellingB (@SpellSouthAsian) May 31, 2017
She just keeps buzzing along. #spellingbee #speller85 https://t.co/0lY2jcAOcV
— Mark Johnson (@ByMarkJohnson) May 31, 2017
Obviously, some users took the chance to make a political statement through the popular hashtag.
In honor of #SpellingBee Week, here's a list of words for this administration:
— Women's March (@womensmarch) May 31, 2017
1. Truth
2. Accountability
3. Transparency#MarchForTruth pic.twitter.com/AiMEp6MZeA
And thanks to President Trump's midnight tweet, there were many "covfefe" jokes.
#spellingbee pic.twitter.com/829iVywEoa
— Eric D. Campbell (@edcampbell74) May 31, 2017
The word is "Covfefe." "Excuse me?" "Covfefe." "Origin?" "Language unknown. First record in history found in late night tweet." #spellingbee
— K. Hansen (@kiesehansen) May 31, 2017
#SpellingBee announcer: Your word is "covfefe."
— ChuckyT3 (@ChuckyT3) May 31, 2017
Contestant: May I please have the definition?
Announcer: pic.twitter.com/w2V1ysPrpm
The competition will be broadcast on ESPN on Thursday. Whoever wins the spelling bee, will take home a $40,000 first-place cash prize and the coveted title of the nation's top speller. If you ask us, that sounds s-p-e-c-t-a-c-u-l-a-r.
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