16 Winning Words of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
The Scripps National Spelling Bee has been testing young minds since 1925. The first winner was 11-year-old Frank Neuhauser of Louisville, Kentucky, who correctly spelled “gladiolus” (a genus of perennial plant) to claim a prize of $500 and the chance to meet President Calvin Coolidge. Since then, the contest has
been held almost every year, pausing only for World War II and the COVID-19 pandemic. The winning words correctly spelled by these young scholars have, at times, been quite simple — especially in the early years. “Knack,” “torsion,” “intelligible,” and “canonical” were among the final words prior to World War...
