Most words spelled at a Scripps National Spelling Bee finals

At the finals of the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, USA, on 28-30 May 2019, a total of 1,399 words were pronounced across 20 rounds, with a starting cohort of 565 contestants.

This exceeded the previous highest word count of 1,185 issued at the 2018 finals. Word count dramatically rose in 2018 with the introduction of the "RSVBee" programme, an invitational scheme designed to open up the competition to a wider demographic of children across a wider range. Previous to this, the average number of words logged (in the 20 years since this data began to be recorded in 1998) was 692 words.

The 2019 final word count was also particularly high owing to an exceptionally high standard of finalists. Indeed, that contest saw eight contestants (the "Octochamps") crowned the winners after a three-and-a-half-hour battle during which they all successfully completed 20 straight rounds of spelling. Prior to 2019, the most winners there had ever been at a single finals event was two.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee competition was first established in 1925, and has run annually ever since (bar a few years for safety reasons, such as during wartime and in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic).