Indian-American student Shrey Parikh won the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday (28) night in Washington.
The 14-year-old from California secured the title after correctly spelling 32 words in 90 seconds during the final spell-off round. He defeated Ishan Gupta of New Jersey, who correctly spelled 25 words.
Parikh was also a finalist in the 2024 edition of the competition.
With the win, Parikh received several prizes, including “$50,000, a commemorative medal, the Scripps Cup, as well as $2,500 from Merriam-Webster, $1,000 in flight credits from Delta and $400 of reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica.”
The three-day competition began Monday at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in Washington. A total of 247 contestants took part in the event.
Participants came from all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Defense Department schools in Europe. Contestants also came from five other countries: the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates.
Nine contestants advanced to the finals held on Thursday (28) evening.
In the final round, Shrey Parikh and Ishan Gupta were each given 90 seconds to spell as many words as possible from the same list.
Judges determined that Shrey correctly spelled 32 words, while Ishaan correctly spelled 25 words.
Twelve-year-old Sarv Dharavane from Georgia finished in third place.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is one of the most well-known academic competitions in the United States. Every year, students from across the country and other participating regions compete for the championship title.
