Scripps National Spelling Bee 2025 Results, Winner, Finalists and Reaction

Faizan Zaki is the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.

The 13-year-old spelled the word "éclaircissement" correctly on Thursday night to win in the 100th anniversary of the competition.

Zaki was competing in his fourth national spelling bee. He finished as runner-up at the 2024 competition.

Zaki beat Sarvadnya Kadam in the 20th round by spelling "Chaldee" before winning on his final word. Sarv Dharavane took third place.

The Spelling Bee began with the first perfect finals round since 2019 as all nine competitors spelled their opening words correctly.

Akshaj Somisetty placed in ninth after a Round 12 vocabulary question about the word imbroglio.

Esha Marupudi and Oliver Halkett were eliminated in Round 13 on the words aromorphosis and aurore, respectively.

The top six spellers made it through multiple perfect rounds before Harini Mulari was eliminated on "tekke," Brian Liu missed "kyah" and Aishwarya Kallakuri was out on "Keighley" in Round 17.

Zaki had a shot to win in Round 18, but sparked another round when he began spelling too early and brought Kadam and Dharavane back into the competition.

Fans were impressed both by the depth displayed by the nine finalists as well as the drama in the later rounds on Thursday night.

The Spelling Bee featured 243 competitors from all 50 states. Out of those competitors, 99 spellers made it to the quarterfinals and 57 to the semifinals. The nine last competitors earned their spot in the last round after four rounds of semifinals.