Shrey Parikh, 14, broke a record and won the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling 32 words in just 90 seconds. This was the 8th grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California’s third appearance in the Scripps Bee. He didn’t qualify due to an illness last year, and came in 3rd place in 2024, and 89th in 2022.
The spelling bee was held over three days, with 18 rounds and a final rapid-fire “spell-off” that pitted Parikh against 12-year-old Ishaan Gupta from Jersey City, N.J., who answered 25 words correctly in the final round. It’s incredible watching Parikh correctly spell words that most people have never even heard, let alone can spell on the fly, including “torrone,” “enthymeme,” “cywyddau,” “émeute,” and “monadnock.”
What in the world does cywyddau mean?
Wait? Cywyddau. What in the world does that mean? According to Dictionary.com, it’s “a form of meter in Welsh poetry consisting of rhyming couplets, each line having seven syllables: first used in the 14th century.”
Here’s Parikh in action:
According to NPR, Parikh estimates that over the past year, he practiced about 5 hours a day for the spelling bee. “It honestly feels amazing,” Parikh told Good Morning America. “I’m just so glad that I didn’t give up when everything was not good last year, and I’m glad I saw it through to the end and had perseverance and kept going because it all paid off.”
How did Parikh study for the spelling bee?
Parikh said that the secret to his success is practicing by typing out words. “I prepared mostly by typing, so usually that involved trying to get through as many words as I could in a day,” he continued. “The spell-off kind of came naturally because it kind of aligned with my practice, and it was good for me, in that way, that I had the practice to help me do well in the spell-off.”
Parikh’s fourth-grade teacher, Liza Chu, was over the moon after his victory. “Shrey was born a genius,” Chu told KTLA. “But back in 4th Grade when we started this, I never would have thought we would have come to this point … He just blew us away.”
Parikh’s winning word was “bromocriptine,” a biology term that means: “An ergot derivative…that inhibits prolactin and growth hormone secretions and stimulates dopamine production in the brain, used to prevent postpartum lactation and in the treatment of acromegaly and Parkinson’s disease.”
Coming in first place, Parikh gets to take home $52,000 in cash and hundreds of dollars of reference works, an astronaut meet-and-greet at the Kennedy Space Center, and flight credits. Although the greatest gift for the champion is probably free time.
Parikh hopes that when he returns home, he can dedicate more of his time to his other hobbies, including tennis and math competitions. After winning the spelling bee, he had some words of encouragement for those who want to compete in the future. “Just keep trying,” he said. “Trying is the best thing you can do, and it’s the most important thing you can do.”
