The Scripps National Spelling Bee champ set a new competition record. Here’s the winning word

Since 1925, young spellers from across America have united to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. On Thursday night, the 2026 winner was crowned.

Shrey Parikh took home the Scripps Cup, the $50,000 cash prize and a trip to Universal Orlando Resort after a hard-fought battle.

The 14-year-old from San Bernardino, California, won the contest after the third spell-off in the competition’s history. Parikh correctly spelled 32 words in 90 seconds, setting a new spell-off record, according to Scripps.

“I am both relieved and extremely happy that all my hard work paid off,” Parikh told Today.

After a six-year competitive spelling career filled with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, he knew his journey could end at any point during the week’s competition.

The initial finalist pool included Aiden Meng, Oliver Halkett, Parikh, Zwe Spacetime, Sarv Dharavane, Ishaan Gupta, Kushi Gottimukkala, Avishka Dudala and Logan Bailey.

After Dharavane officially placed third, Parikh and Gupta, 12, were the two still standing. Both survived one more conventional round before the buzzer for the shoot-out style round came on stage.

Bee officials trigger the 90-second tiebreaker to decide the champion when only two contestants remain. The spell-off is the only time spellers receive the same words. The speller going second is escorted off the stage to an area where they cannot hear the competition before getting a shot at the exact same words in the exact same order, according to Scripps.

Gupta battled, correctly spelling 25 words, but he took more time to format each word. Parikh’s final, winning word in the regular rotation was “bromocriptine,” a polypeptide alkaloid derivative of ergot, according to Scripps.

“Once I get the word,” Parikh told The Associated Press, “I’m not really nervous anymore, because then it’s all in my control.”

“I was counting and I’m like, OK, this is more than 30,” Parikh’s mother, Khyati Mehta told The Associated Press. “And at that point, I’m like, ‘I think this is it.’”

The lightning round finish was first introduced in 2022. However, the format remains controversial among some purists because it emphasizes speed and memorization over a speller working out the roots of a difficult word.

“It’s a perversion of many values that I and many in the spelling community hold dear,” Navneeth Murali, a competitor through 2020 and now coach, told The Associated Press. “I think everyone would have liked to see a duel, but it looks like the spell-off is here to stay. It’s something that we’ll have to adapt to.”

Parikh was a favorite walking into the competition and walked away a champion.

“Right now I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m just so happy and relieved, and just such a flood of emotions,” Parikh told The Associated Press. “At my school bee last year, I was really dejected and just very upset. It didn’t even sink in until the next day. I had a really tough time, but I’m glad I was able to bounce back.”

He celebrated the big win with fellow spellers back at his hotel, “ordering a ton of pizza” and staying up with his friends reading the news and watching clips from the competition. He didn’t go to bed until “2 or 3 a.m.,” he told Today.

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