Day 6

Spelling Bee wants D-E-F-I-N-I-T-I-O-N-S

For over 80 years, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has been a straightforward spelling competition. But for the first time in history, this year's spellers will qualify for the semi-finals and championship finals based on a cumulative score that incorporates both spelling, and  vocabulary. Brent speaks to Emily Stagg, a past Bee competitor who was profiled in the Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound. Emily...

For over 80 years, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has been a straightforward spelling competition. But for the first time in history, this year's spellers will qualify for the semi-finals and championship finals based on a cumulative score that incorporates both spelling, and  vocabulary. Brent speaks to Emily Stagg, a past Bee competitor who was profiled in the Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound. Emily wrote a 2006 op-ed in the New York Times calling for this change. Brent also talks to 11-year old Scripps competitor, Vanya Shivishankar, for her take.



Remember - Day 6 completely invented one of these words, just to make it that much harder. Good luck!

The Day 6 Vocab Contest is now closed - you can't win anything, but you certainly can play if you'd like: