The 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee came down the third-ever ‘Spell Off‘ in the history of the competition. It was a battle between a 14-year-old 8th grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California against a 12-year-old 7th grader Ishaan Gupta from Jersey City, New Jersey where they each had 90 seconds to correctly spell as many words as possible.
Competitors in the Scripps National Spelling Bee are eligible through 8th grade which means this was the final year that 14-year-old Shrey Parikh was eligible. It was all or nothing for him. And in the end, he correctly spelled 32 words in 90 seconds.
Was it the most electrifying 90-seconds of sports so far this year? Honestly, it might be.
8th Grader Wins 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee In 90-Second ‘Spell Off’
7th grader Ishaan Gupta of Jersey City held his own during the rare Spell Off. He correctly spelled 25 words in 90 seconds. But in the end he fell 8 correctly-spelled words short of winning.
During the National Spelling Bee ‘Spell Off’ format, the competitors are not penalized for incorrectly spelling words. They simply move on to the next word. So there is some strategy to simply rattling off words as quickly as humanly possible.
That sounds easy, in theory, but these are not regular words. They are not spelling ‘difficult’ or ‘overrated.’ These are words pulled from virtually ever language in existence that have at some point been co-opted into use among the English language, regardless of how rare they are.
And unlike the regular spelling rounds they do not get the language of origin nor do they get to hear the word used in a sentence. It is rapid fire spelling at such a level it might cause your heartbeat to race watching these masters of language compete under pressure. The clip on YouTube somehow only has 207,000 views since last week. I feel like it should easily have 20 million views by now. So when you’re done watching I want you to do two things: (1) drop your favorite difficult word to spell in the comments section below and (2) share this article with someone that needs to see it because it is a truly incredible feat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFkrOpDja1o
Be honest with yourself, how many of those words could you correctly spell. Go ahead and add that answer to your comment in the all-new BroBible comments section below including your favorite difficult word to spell. Mine, of course, is the GOAT when it comes to difficult spelling. My AP Lit teacher actually assigned this one to us back in high school: floccinaucinihilipilification. ‘To treat something as if it was nothing’ was the definition we were given back then.
What does the Scripps National Spelling Bee winner receive?
After seeing the Spelling Bee Spell Off clip I grabbed my son to show it to him. He’s much smarter than I am despite only being in elementary school. He’s entering a magnet school for gifted learners. And I showed him this clip thinking he would be impressed and his only response was ‘what do you get for winning? I wouldn’t try that hard if I didn’t get anything.’
Here I was thinking that the best speller in the world was reward enough but my son was right, rewards are important. So I looked it up and the winner of the Scripps National Spelling bee receives a handsome reward for an 8th grader or younger.
They receive $52,000 in cash prizes, $400 in encyclopedias from Brittanica, $1,000 in Delta Airlines credits, and a $1,000 donation to their school along with a 5-year News-O-Matic subscription to the school. Of course, they also get an awesome trophy and a medal for winning.
Worth it? Absolutely. How else is an 8th grader going to make $52K all while studying? Shrey Parikh previously competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2024. The ‘Spell Off’ was introduced in 2021. This was just the 3rd time in the National Spelling Bee’s history it has come into play.
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The Third ‘Spell Off’ In National Spelling Bee History Is The Most Electric 90-Seconds Of Sports This Year
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