WASHINGTON, D.C. − A Revere Middle School student competing in the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., has been eliminated after the first round.
Thirteen-year-old eighth grader Esther Lin misspelled her first word, tillamook, which is a type of cheddar cheese.
Lin, who won the Akron Beacon Journal’s Regional Spelling Bee in March to qualify for the national contest, struggled with the word for a bit after initially walking to the microphone and greeting head associate pronouncer Brian Sietsema with a simple “morning.”
She repeated the word to Sietsema several times, and he said it back to her. She was attempting to make out whether the middle consonant was an M or an N.
Spellers are permitted to ask several questions of the pronouncer, which include the word’s language of origin, its definition, the part of speech and for it to be used in a sentence. They also can ask if there are any alternate pronunciations.
Judges and the pronouncer will not, however, answer questions from the spellers about whether they are pronouncing it correctly. They will simply say the word again.
In Lin’s case, after a repeated back and forth that included her saying “tillamook” and “tillanook,” Scripps’ word panelist Vanya Shivashankar told Lin to listen carefully to the secondpart of the word as Sietsema repeated it again. She then began spelling, She spelled the word “tillamooc.”
Shivashankar, who won the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee, has been heavily involved in the event since. She regularly has roles as a host during television commercial breaks and has even served as a pronouncer and judge.
Tillamook cheddar is an American cheese, made from a quality blend of cow’s milk, according to cheese.com. A cheese company named Tillamook is based in Oregon. It sells several types of cheddar.
On May 26, if spellers were correct on their Round 1 word, they immediately were given a vocabulary word as Round 2. If they correctly selected the definition, they would move on to a written test planned for later in the afternoon.
The top scorers on the test move on to the quarterfinal rounds on May 27. The semifinal rounds are later in the day May 27, and the bee’s final rounds will be May 28.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron regional champion competes at Scripps National Spelling Bee
Reporting by Laura Kessel, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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