How are the words selected for the National Spelling Bee?
The National Spelling Bee was begun in 1925. In 1941, Scripps Howard acquired the rights to the program. In 2004, Scripps Howard’s National Spelling Bee was expected to involve more than ten million students at the local level, and ended up with 265 national finalists. Scripps Howard publishes a yearly collection of thousands of words to help spellers study, called Paideia. The words are categorized and then divided into three difficulty levels. The words in Paideia are typical of the words that will be used in most local spelling bees. Local contests are not limited to the words in the book. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1981) is the source for all the words used in these spelling bees. Word lists for local spelling bees usually begin with easy words selected from the beginning categories in Paideia and gradually progress to the more difficult words. In some local spelling bees with a high level of competition, spellers remaining at th
