Top speller in English to be crowned at Scripps National Spelling Bee finals

Top speller in English to be crowned at Scripps National Spelling Bee finals

The 11 finalists for the Scripps National Spelling Bee pose for a picture after the day's competition, Wednesday, May 31, 2023, in Oxon Hill, Md. Left to right-Shradha Rachamreddy, 13, from San Jose, Calif., Aryan Khedkar, 12, from Rochester, Hills Mich., Arth Dalsania, 14, from Camarillo, Calif., Pranav Anandh, 14, from Glen Mills, Pa., Sarah Fernandes, 11, from Omaha, Neb., Charlotte Walsh, 14, from Arlington, Va., Dev Shah, 14, from Largo, Fla., Surya Kapu, 14, from South Jordan, Utah, Dhruv Subramanian, 12, from San Ramon, Calif., Vikrant Chintanaboina, 14, from San Jose, Calif., and Tarini Nandakumar, 12, from Round Rock, Texas. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The Scripps National Spelling Bee is set to crown a champion, with 11 finalists gathering Thursday night in a convention center ballroom outside Washington to demonstrate their mastery of Merriam-Webster's Unabridged dictionary.

The bee has undergone many changes as a result of an eight-way tie in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which wiped it out a year later. But one thing that hasn't changed is the skill and dedication of the top spellers in the English language.