San Diego Student Eliminated In 5th Round Of National Spelling Bee

SAN DIEGO, CA — A San Diego student was eliminated Wednesday in the fifth round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Duaa Ouznali, an eighth grader at Bright Horizon Academy in San Diego, incorrectly answered a vocabulary question. She was asked, "Something described as temporal" and selected "has simplicity and charm." The correct answer was "relates to time as opposed to eternity."

The second question in each of the four segments of the bee — preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals — is a multiple-choice vocabulary question.

The 13-year-old was among 15 spellers eliminated in the fifth round as the field was reduced to 73. She tied for 74th.

Duaa and all the other quarterfinalists receive a $100 gift card and a commemorative pin from the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is an end-of-the-school-year tradition that began in 1925, when nine newspapers held spelling bees and the winners squared off for the spelling title. Since then, millions of spellers have participated in the bee, which is held just outside the nation's capital, at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River.

Although the bee itself is 100 years old, this is the 97th national spelling competition. It was paused from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year's champion will be the 110th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.

The participants, all under the age of 15, must not have passed beyond the eighth grade. To make it to the quarterfinals in Maryland, the 243 spellers prevailed first in local spelling bees.

At least one speller from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia qualified for the bee, along with students from U.S. territories Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands; and from Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.

Sixty spellers were eliminated in Tuesday's preliminary spelling and vocabulary rounds, leaving 183 to take a written spelling and vocabulary test ahead of Wednesday's quarterfinals. Another 84 were eliminated by the test, leaving 99 quarter finalists on the stage Wednesday morning.

The semifinal round airs from 8-10 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday and the final round airs from 8-10 p.m. Thursday on the ION network, which is owned by Scripps.

City News Service and The Associated Press contributed reporting.