(30 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oxon Hill, Maryland – 29 May 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Faizan Zaki, Scripps National Spelling Bee champion:
“Commelina. Oh my God. That was like, I’m definitely going to be having nightmares about that tonight."
++WHITE FLASH++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Faizan Zaki, Scripps National Spelling Bee champion:
"Like, that got in my head and when I got commeline, I got K-A-M, oh no, it’s wrong."
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Faizan Zaki, Scripps National Spelling Bee champion:
"I was thinking of another word, kamleika, which is spelled k-a-m-e-l-a-i-k-a, and since I like… then I realized it’s not a K sound, it’s an N sound. And then I realized it’s not k-a-m, it’s c-o-m-m-e-l-i-n-a. And like, I studied that like many, many times."
++WHITE FLASH++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Faizan Zaki, Scripps National Spelling Bee champion: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 5 AND 6++
"So I got back, composed myself after that, and I spelled my two words correctly, or three I think after that, and then I won. ‘Eclaircissement,’ that was a relatively easy word that I recognized and I just decided to go for it since, obviously slower, I still spelled it like e-c-l. A lot of it will go to charity for sure. I want to give back to the people who might not be as fortunate as me."
5. STILL of Zaki celebrating as he correctly spells final word
6. STILL of Zaki celebrating as confetti comes down
STORYLINE:
Faizan Zaki’s enthusiasm for spelling nearly got the better of him. Ultimately, his joyful approach made him the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
The favorite entering the bee after his runner-up finish last year — during which he never misspelled a word in a conventional spelling round, only to lose a lightning-round tiebreaker that he didn’t practice for — the shaggy-haired Faizan wore the burden of expectations lightly, sauntering to the microphone in a black hoodie and spelling his words with casual glee.
Throughout Thursday night’s finals, the 13-year-old from Allen, Texas, looked like a champion in waiting.
Then he nearly threw it away. But even a shocking moment of overconfidence couldn’t prevent him from seizing the title of best speller in the English language.
With the bee down to three spellers, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane missed their words back-to-back, putting Faizan two words away from victory. The first was “commelina,” but instead of asking the requisite questions — definition, language of origin — to make sure he knew it, Faizan let his showman’s instincts take over.
“K-A-M,” he said, then stopped himself. “OK, let me do this. Oh, shoot!”
“Just ring the bell,” he told head judge Mary Brooks, who obliged.
“So now you know what happens,” Brooks said, and the other two spellers returned to the stage.
Later, standing next to the trophy with confetti at his feet, Faizan said: “I’m definitely going to be having nightmares about that tonight.”
Even pronouncer Jacques Bailly tried to slow Faizan down before his winning word, “eclaircissement,” but Faizan didn’t ask a single question before spelling it correctly, and he pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letter.
The bee celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, and Faizan may be the first champion who’s remembered more for a word he got wrong than one he got right.
Including Faizan, whose parents emigrated from southern India, 30 of the past 36 champions have been Indian American, a run that began with Nupur Lala’s victory in 1999, which was later featured in the documentary “Spellbound.”
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