The Real Comeback Kid: Last Year’s Runner-Up Faizan Zaki Wins 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship
- The 13-year-old seventh-grader from Dallas who first competed when he was 7, claims the top honor on 100th anniversary of competition.
Faizan Zaki, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Dallas, Texas, won the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, correctly spelling the French word “éclaircissement” to claim the championship on the competition’s 100th anniversary. To be sure, Zaki stunned the audience, including veteran observers when did not pause for even fraction of second before plunging into spelling the 15-letter word correctly.
The victory marks a remarkable comeback for Zaki, who finished as runner-up in last year’s competition. He defeated more than 240 competitors from across the country, with Sarvadnya Kadam finishing as this year’s runner-up.
“I was just ready to get it over with,” Zaki said after his victory, surrounded by family and friends. “I wasn’t expecting this though.”
The winning moment was dramatic — Zaki spelled “éclaircissement,” which means clarification, explanation or enlightenment in English, before falling to the ground as confetti poured over him.
Zaki’s path to victory required intense preparation. For the past year, he maintained a training schedule that would rival professional athletes, studying words five to six hours daily on weekdays and seven to eight hours on weekends.
His mother, Arshia Quadri, and father, Zaki Anwar, watched as their son’s dedication paid off. Quadri said she felt like she was holding her breath until Thursday night’s finals.
“This was the first year he felt any external pressure,” Quadri noted, though she was relieved it wasn’t overwhelming.
A Gifted Child’s Journey
Zaki’s exceptional abilities emerged early. He began reading at age 2, and by age 3, he had learned all the world’s countries and their capitals — “which I have never known in my life,” his mother says, laughing.
By age 4, people were suggesting schools for gifted children. Zaki made his first appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee when he was just 7 years old.
This year’s victory came in his fourth appearance at the national competition. He tied for 370th place in 2019, finished tied for 21st in 2023, and came in second place in 2024.
After his second-place finish last year, Zaki adjusted his preparation strategy to increase speed and improve vocabulary. He would come home from school, open the dictionary, and search for unfamiliar words, tracking them in a document with definitions and spellings.
He also specifically prepared for the spell-off — the final tiebreaking round that cost him victory last year. In 2024, Bruhat Soma defeated Zaki by spelling 29 words correctly to Zaki’s 20 in the 90-second challenge. This year, the spell-off wasn’t needed.
Zaki credits friendships with fellow elite spellers for keeping him calm before big events. When nervous, he tells himself: “I think you know this word. You can do it. That gets me pumped.”
The Competition
The 2025 National Spelling Bee brought together spellers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, plus international participants from Ghana, Guam, Kuwait, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Among the nine finalists, seven were of Indian origin: Esha Marupudi, 13; Sarv Dharavane, 11; Aishwarya Kallakuri, 14; Harini Murali, 13; Oliver Halkett, 13; Faizan Zaki, 13; Brian Liu, 13; Akshaj Somisetty, 13; and Sarvadnya Kadam, 14.
Zaki, who attends C.M. Rice Middle School in Dallas, appeared relaxed throughout the competition, often strolling to the microphone with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets.
Outside of competitive spelling, Zaki enjoys playing video games, chatting with friends, speed-solving Rubik’s Cubes, and playing viola. As an avid language and linguistics enthusiast, he is currently learning French — fitting, given his winning word’s origins.
For his victory, Zaki receives $50,000 in cash, a commemorative medal, the famous Scripps Cup, and numerous other prizes.
The youngest competitor this year was 8-year-old Zachary Teoh, continuing the tradition of young spellers challenging themselves on the national stage.
Top photo: Faizan Zaki receives his Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy on Thursday. Courtesy of Scripps National Spelling Bee/Facebook.
This report is based on inputs from Scripps News and The New York Times, among others.