Rules and Procedures

Participants must be 18 years or older. No pre-registration required.
Eligible: Those who have not won three times or have not won a national spelling bee for adults (call it sustainability for newcomers to have a chance).
We provide paper, and for those without a writing instrument, we provide pencils.
For Round 1, place your name at the top right of the paper and on the left the numbers 1 to 20.
Round 2 has 15 words, Round 3 has 10, and Round 4 has 5.
You’ll have 20 seconds to spell each word after we pronounce it. After the round, we’ll repeat them.
A schwa is an unstressed vowel, so asking for repeats may not help.
Print clearly, no cursive. If we can’t read it, we can’t mark it.
Don’t worry about capitals, hyphens, spaces, or diacritical marks (such as cedillas or grave accents).
To correct a mistake, put a line through the word and write it again. Do not erase or insert letters.
In Round 1, you’ll mark your own paper, X for incorrect. If you qualify for Round 2, we’ll recheck your paper. In all other rounds, we mark the papers of those in the running.
We take about 20 people into Round 2, about 10 into Round 3, and about 5 into Round 4. A tie for first at the end of Round 4 results in a Sudden Death Round.
Do not collaborate on spellings—no use of cell phones or text messaging.
We consult several unabridged dictionaries to confirm the spelling of the words we select, including Merriam-Webster, Random House, and Oxford American.
Our event is the first Saturday after Valentine’s Day each year.
After a third win, a competitor must retire from the competition and enjoy some time serving on the committee.