LEADERSHIP WORTHINGTON’S COMMUNITY SPELLING BEE
2009 CONTEST RULES
1. Teams will be randomly selected for the order in which they will be competing. This
order will be determined by the committee before the day of the event.
2. The pronouncer will give the team a word, followed by the definition, and a sentence in
which the word is used.
3. Each team has 30 seconds to confer and begin spelling the word.
4. A team may request the pronouncer to pronounce the word again, to repeat the definition
or to use it in a sentence. No other information will be given.
5. The speller is encouraged to pronounce the word before and after spelling it. However, no
team will be eliminated after failing to pronounce a word!
6. Having started to spell a word, a speller may stop and start over. But, the speller must
indicate he or she is beginning to spell the word again.
7. A team may decide to pass on the word they are given. Each team has one pass. When
passing, a new word is given to the next team.
8. When a word is misspelled, the team is eliminated and a new word is given to the next
team. The order in which they are eliminated determines their rank in the competition.
9. Protests are to be made before moving on to the next word. The decision of our judges
will be final.
10. When the number of spellers is reduced to TWO, the elimination procedure changes. At
that point, when one speller misspells a word, the other speller shall be given an
opportunity to spell that same word. If the second speller spells that word correctly, plus
the next word on the pronouncer’s list, then the second speller shall be declared the
champion.
11. If one of the last two spellers misspells a word and the other speller, after correcting the
error, misspells the new word, then the misspelled new word shall be referred to the other
speller. If this other speller then succeeds in correcting the error and spells the next word
on the list, then he or she shall be declared the champion.
12. If both teams misspell the same word, both teams shall continue in the competition. The
new round will begin with the team who last misspelled the word, starting with a new
word.
Rev. 2/07