Thirteen-year-old Faizan Zaki from Plano, Texas, captured the coveted title at the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. How many tries did it take for Faizan Zaki to bag the win?
It took two — and a word few can pronounce, let alone spell — “éclaircissement”. As he approached the final letters, Zaki’s voice cracked with tension.
Then, in a flash of victory, he spelt the word correctly and collapsed to the stage floor, overcome with relief and joy. The scene unfolded at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbour, Maryland, US. Zaki’s win quickly became one of the most memorable endings in recent Bee history.
Watch Zaki’s Winning Moment Below:
FAIZAN ZAKI FINALLY NAILED ÉCLAIRCISSEMENT FTW 🔥🙌 CONGRATS!!!
And that’s after surviving Chaldee in R20, but before that… #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/UMS8xd4ybi
— ruletheword335 // TS 🐝 (@ruletheword335) May 30, 2025
“This was about the most exciting finish I’ve ever seen,” said Corrie Loeffler, the Bee’s executive director, according to The New York Times.
Zaki’s win was especially significant. He returned to the finals this year after narrowly missing the title in 2024, when he was edged out by Bruhat Soma in just the second spell-off ever held in the competition’s century-long history. This time, redemption was sweet and hard-earned.
With the win, Zaki took home a $50,000 prize. The runners-up also received substantial cash rewards, honouring their exceptional spelling skills and composure under pressure.
The 2025 finals were packed with drama. As the fourth round kicked off, six contestants remained. One by one, they began to falter on the unforgiving words thrown their way. Thirteen-year-old Akshaj Somisetty from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, exited in round two. Later, in the third round, Phoenix native Esha Marupudi stumbled on “aromorphosis,” while Los Angeles’ Oliver Halkett misspelt “aurore.”
The intensity escalated in round seven. Edison, New Jersey’s Harini Murali bowed out on “tekke”, a Turkish word meaning a dervish monastery. Brian Liu from Great Neck, New York, followed shortly after, tripping up on “kyah”. Charlotte’s Aishwarya Kallakuri, 14, missed the mark on “Keighley”.
Even the event’s real-time captioning couldn’t keep up — many of the words were so obscure, the automatic transcription repeatedly failed.
By round 10, only a few remained. Sarvadnya Kadam, 14, of Visalia, California, was eliminated after a misstep with “Uaupés”, a river flowing through Colombia and Brazil. The youngest finalist, 11-year-old Sarv Dharavane, had bowed out a round earlier after misspelling “eserine”.
Zaki had a shot at the title as early as round eight, but a fumble on “commelina” — starting with a “k” instead of a “c” — kept the suspense alive. For several rounds, the remaining spellers held strong. But in round seven, a string of eliminations left Zaki, Kadam, and Dharavane as the last competitors standing.
This year’s competition began with 243 spellers representing all 50 US states, plus Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. International contestants joined from Canada, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait, Nigeria, and the Bahamas. Of those, 178 were first-time competitors. The age range spanned from eight to 14, with nearly one-third of participants at the competition’s upper age limit.
Each speller was given 90 seconds to spell a word after hearing it pronounced. They could request the word’s definition, part of speech, a sample sentence, its etymology, alternate pronunciations, or have it repeated. The official reference: Merriam-Webster Unabridged.
Founded in 1925, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has crowned 109 champions over the past century — 56 boys and 53 girls. with brief pauses during World War II and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
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