Faizan Zaki — who was last year's runner-up — is the winner of the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The 13-year-old received the coveted Scripps Cup Thursday night after correctly spelling éclaircissement — a French word that means clarification, explanation or enlightenment in English. He outspelled more than 240 other competitors from across the country, including runner-up Sarvadnya Kadam.
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Faizan is a 7th-grade student at C.M. Rice Middle School in Dallas, Texas. This was his fourth Scripps National Spelling Bee, after finishing tied for 370th place in 2019, tied for 21st place in 2023, and 2nd place in 2024.
Faizan has a lot of other interests beyond spelling, including playing video games, chatting with friends, speed-solving Rubik's Cubes and playing his viola. He is also an avid language and linguistics nerd who is currently learning French.
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The Bee, which takes place in National Harbor, Maryland, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Spellers represented all 50 states and the District of Columbia. There were also spellers representing Ghana, Guam, Kuwait, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
All spellers walked away with the experience of a lifetime, but the winner is also taking home $50,000 in cash, a commemorative medal and the famous Scripps Cup, along with numerous other prizes.
Scripps News is a subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Company, which runs the Bee on a not-for-profit basis.
