{"id":295432,"date":"2026-09-28T09:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/295432\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T09:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:02:09","slug":"adult-spelling-bees-are-officially-a-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/295432\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult Spelling Bees Are Officially a Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNews<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Philadelphians are gathering in bars to confront middle-school trauma, flex their vocabularies, and experience the thrill of being told they\u2019ve done a good job.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"adult<\/p>\n

Can\u2008You\u2008Spell\u2008Z-E-I-T-G-E-I-S-T ? \/ Illustration by Hagan McLeod<\/p>\n

It is no surprise that in an age of unconscionable* horrors, many find themselves mired in megrims* and nostalgic for the halcyon* days of their youth. What is unexpected is that lately, Philadelphia has responded to the circumstances with a spate of adult spelling bees.<\/p>\n

I first noticed the trend back in May, when the creators of the zine The Philadelphia Citywide<\/a> asked to host a zine launch and spelling bee at the Pen and Pencil Club<\/a>, where I\u2019m on the board. A fellow board member was incredulous: Would anyone really attend? Lo and behold, the bee packed the house and was our most profitable day of the year so far.<\/p>\n

Then I noticed that Harmonie Hall in Roxborough had recently hosted a combo chili cook-off and spelling bee. In June, Midbrow Philly wrote about two spelling bees happening in South Philly<\/a> on the same day. In July, the Funky Food Fest<\/a> at Pentridge Station in West Philly included a food-themed spelling bee, inspired, host Florian Francis Spece told me, by all the other recent bees.<\/p>\n

Clearly, enthusiasm for orthography* is in the zeitgeist,* with no sign of surceasing.*<\/p>\n

(Lest you accuse me of logodaedaly [noun: arbitrary or capricious coinage of words] or catachresis [noun: use of the wrong word for the context], I borrowed my newfound vocabulary from spelling bee organizers. See more in the sidebar.)<\/p>\n

Co-host of the Citywide spelling bee Larissa Sapko told me she\u2019d been inspired by the recent fad for goofy in-person competitions and public stunts, like the rotisserie chicken guy<\/a> and the wave of look-alike contests. But she hadn\u2019t seen any spelling bees yet. The response to the Citywide\u2019s was immediate. More than 20 people signed up to spell.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the feedback we got from the sign-up form was along the lines of \u2018I\u2019m trying to exorcise my childhood trauma from my seventh-grade spelling bee,\u2019\u201d Sapko said. \u201cThey felt like this was an attempt to confront this element of their childhood, which wasn\u2019t really what we were anticipating.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what brought Bill Gravitz to the P&P that night. When he struck out on goad in eighth grade, he thought he\u2019d never get another chance. \u201cAdult spelling bees were unheard of in 1977,\u201d he said. Now, he seeks them out around the region<\/a>. The Citywide\u2019s was his first in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

That night, the spellers were neither pococurante* nor flibbertigibbety.* Participants showed up early to drill each other on word lists. Perhaps spurred on by pot-valor,* the spellers bravely navigated round after round, during which the spectators in the packed bar abstained from any persiflage.* A tense silence reigned while spellers ventured their best guesses, broken by wild applause when spellers progressed and conciliatory cheers when they struck out.<\/p>\n

Gravitz won on the word zymurgy* and then gave an extemporaneous speech about how something bad always happens to him this time of year, and now he could finally say something good had happened. Musician, writer, and fellow speller Pierce Jackson got the entire room chanting \u201cSomething good!\u201d The mood was positively frabjous.*<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a city like Philadelphia where there\u2019s no shortage of debauchery, good, clean fun is in itself a welcome commodity,\u201d Jackson told me.<\/p>\n

In adult years, you just don\u2019t get grades anymore. And it\u2019s nice to be told you\u2019ve done a good job at something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna Ladd, who organized one of the South Philly spelling bees (mostly for a crowd of friends), said she didn\u2019t realize spelling contests were in vogue until she learned another was happening at Cartesian Brewing the same day. Ladd borrowed a spelling list from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, aiming for a mixture of easy and hard vocabulary. The response was mostly positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encouraged the audience to boo in the manner of Philadelphia, but they mostly didn\u2019t boo the spellers,\u201d she said. Instead, they heckled the organizer. \u201cIt turns out everyone gets really mad at you when you tell them to spell onychorrhexis.*\u201d<\/p>\n

A fifth-grade spelling bee winner, Ladd also chalked up the trend to nostalgia, noting a similar uptick in events that hark back to the beloved Scholastic book fair. She\u2019s thinking of hosting an event where people run the mile like in middle school PE.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn adult years, you just don\u2019t get grades anymore. And it\u2019s nice to be told you\u2019ve done a good job at something,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also scary to strike out. I still remember misspelling aren\u2019t in my own fourth-grade spelling bee. I placed the apostrophe between the e and the n, and then blamed my newly acquired contact lenses when I started to cry at my desk. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the trend is that people are willing to risk the ignominy* of a public mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cNerve-racking, definitely,\u201d Jackson said of his spelling experience, which ended on emphysema.* \u201cHumbling. \u2026 But then it was a relief because I was done and I didn\u2019t have to spell anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

* Word for Word<\/p>\n

Test your mettle (and that of your friends!) with these words from recent adult spelling bees. Remember, according to Scripps National Spelling Bee rules, spellers may ask for a definition, part of speech, and any alternative pronunciations.<\/p>\n

Emphysema (n.) a condition characterized by air-filled expansions of body tissuesFlibbertigibbety (adj.) silly and flightyFrabjous (adj.) wonderfulHalcyon (adj.) characterized by happiness, great success, and prosperityIgnominy (n.) humiliationMegrims (n.) a state of low spiritsOnychorrhexis (n.) longitudinal ridging and splitting of the nailsOrthography (n.) the art of writing words with the proper letters according to standard usagePersiflage (n.) frivolous bantering talkPococurante (adj.) indifferent, nonchalantPot-valor (n.) boldness or courage resulting from alcoholic drinkSurcease (v.) to come to an endUnconscionable (adj.) shockingly unfair or unjustZeitgeist (n.) the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an eraZymurgy (n.) the applied science and chemistry of fermentation<\/p>\n

Published as \u201cCan\u2008You\u2008Spell\u2008Z-E-I-T-G-E-I-S-T ?\u201d in the October 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.<\/p>\n