50th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The competition was won by 13-year-old eighth-grader John Paola of Glenshaw, Pennsylvania, correctly spelling "cambist" (a dealer in foreign bills of exchange).^[1][2] Paola had finished 22nd in the prior year's bee,^[3] where he missed svengali.

Second place went to 14-year-old Joan O'Leary of Yonkers, New York, who fell on sesquipedalian. Both O'Leary and Paola had missed "futtock" and "yizkor" before "sesquipedalian" came up. Third-place was captured by Joseph Fumic of North Olmsted, Ohio, who misspelled "triage".^[2][4] Fourth place went to Roxanne Taylor of Forest Hills, New York, who misspelled "mecometer".^[5]

Frank Neuhauser (then 63), winner of the 1st Bee, was in the audience at the finals.^[2]

This year's competition had 94 spellers (another record), with 57 girls and 36 boys.^[2][4] After seven rounds in the first day of competition, the field was reduced to 26, 17 girls and 9 boys.^[4]

A taped version of the finals appeared on television on PBS this year (last previously done in the 1974 bee).^[6]