Fairfax County Student Advances To 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee Final

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — A 14-year-old from Fairfax County is competing to be the best speller in the U.S. as a finalist in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Charlotte Walsh, 14, is one of 11 finalists in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the nation's most prestigious spelling competition held in National Harbor, Maryland. Walsh has competed two other times, tying for 51st in 2019 and tying for 32nd in 2022. A student of Compass Homeschool Enrichment, Walsh is participating in the spelling bee through the Fairfax County Council PTA.

Students have to spell their assigned word correctly to advance past each round. In addition, the second round of preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals challenges each student to answer a multiple choice vocabulary question.

In the first round, Walsh correctly spelled rescissible. Walsh correctly answered the second round multiple choice question of someone described as vainglorious is boastful.

She correctly spelled cleric and gargoyle in the third and fourth rounds, correctly identified jumbo shrimp as an example of an oxymoron in the fifth round, correctly spelled anilox in the sixth round, identified nocturne as a type of musical composition in the seventh round, and correctly spelled sorge in the eighth round.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee started Wednesday with quarterfinals and semifinals. There were 231 spellers who made it to the national competition by competing in regional spelling bees. Students represent the 50 U.S. states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Department of Defense Schools in Europe, the Bahamas, Canada and Ghana.

Finals are scheduled for 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday on ION.