Rejoice, logophiles: The Scripps National Spelling Bee is back and will return to primetime television this week.
Beginning on Tuesday, 278 spellers will converge at National Harbor for a three-day competition that will end with one student taking home, among other prizes, $30,000 in cash.
The District, Maryland and Virginia have a total of 24 students in the competition, including the youngest participant ever. Lori Anne Madison, 6, hails from Woodbridge.
Madison’s age is hardly the norm, though. The eldest contestant is 15 years old, but organizers say 84 percent of contestants are between 12 and 14.
The first round of competition is a written test, but spellers will spit out words on Wednesday and Thursday before a live audience on ESPN3. ESPN will broadcast the championship round Thursday night.
A student from the Washington area last won the spelling bee in 1984, when Daniel Greenblatt of Leesburg won with “luge.”
The words have increased in difficulty since: The 2011 winner claimed victory by spelling “cymotrichous” correctly.
