The winning word at the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee

This year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee brought redemption for Fazian Zaki, the 13-year-old from Dallas, Texas who came agonizingly close to winning the title in 2024.

This time around Zaki took on Sarvadnya Kadam in the grand final and finally won out in the 20th round of competition. The winning word for Zaki was ‘éclaircissement’, which is defined by the Merrian-Webster dictionary as "a clearing up of something obscure“.

The competition was hosted in Washington DC with three days of spellings for the top competitors. Zaki triumphed on Thursday but threw away a chance to win it in the 18th round, jumping in too soon to attempt his spelling of ‘commelina’.

Before taking the opportunity to ask any questions he jumped in with a ‘k’, not accounting for the fact that there are two spellings with the same pronunciation. As soon as he started with a ‘k’ judge Mary Brooks flagged it as incorrect and he lost that first chance to clinch the title.

“I can’t remember the last time we’ve seen this kind of late-round drama here at the spelling bee,” said Bee TV analyst Paul Loeffler.

Zaki was tantalizingly close to becoming the champion last year, when the Scripps National Spelling Bee went to a spell-off. This year he triumphed from a field of 243 competitors, taking the title on the competition’s 100th anniversary.

He also becomes only the fifth runner-up to go on and win the trophy in a subsequent year. Alongside the glory, Faizan will also take home more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.

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