{"id":71015,"date":"2026-04-30T17:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=71015"},"modified":"2026-04-30T17:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:05:17","slug":"bailly-spelling-bee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/bailly-spelling-bee\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Spell a National Bee Legend? J-A-C-Q-U-E-S B-A-I-L-L-Y!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The doctoral alum is the longtime head pronouncer for the iconic competition, a century-old celebration of language<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Beth Saulnier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Jacques Bailly, PhD \u201997, the winning word at the 1980 Scripps National Spelling Bee<\/a> was \u201celucubrate\u201d\u2014which, aptly enough, means \u201cto work out or express by studious effort.\u201d At 14, Bailly was crowned America\u2019s spelling champion, taking home $1,000 and a nice set of encyclopedias. (Remember those?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his career in orthography didn\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Since 2003, he has been the Bee\u2019s head pronouncer\u2014an unflappable presence on national TV (in 2026, it airs May 27\u201328 on the Ion channel) who reads words aloud and answers contestants\u2019 queries about definition, usage, language of origin, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2006, he even played himself in the film Akeelah and the Bee<\/em><\/a>, about a girl from South Los Angeles who makes it to the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s kind of amusing, and bemusing, that people pay attention to me, because I\u2019m just there to deliver the words,\u201d says Bailly, a classics professor<\/a> at the University of Vermont.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Jacques
provided<\/figcaption>
The champ in 1980.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll I do is sit there and talk like I normally do, though I try to pronounce words a bit crisper. It just feels like a mini-conversation with each speller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Bailly\u2019s favorite Bee moments are some now-classics, like the time in 2007 when he gave a boy the word \u201csardoodledom<\/a>\u201d\u2014and the kid completely cracked up, before spelling it correctly and returning to his chair with enormous glee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(According to Merriam-Webster, whose unabridged volume is the Bee\u2019s official dictionary, it means \u201cmechanically contrived plot structure and stereotyped or unrealistic characterization in drama.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

All I do is sit there and talk like I normally do, though I try to pronounce words a bit crisper. It just feels like a mini-conversation with each speller.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Another howler came the following year, when Bailly gave a competitor the word \u201cnumnah<\/a>\u201d (\u201ca felt or sheepskin pad placed between a horse\u2019s back and the saddle to prevent chafing\u201d)\u2014but the horrified boy thought he\u2019d said \u201cnumbnut\u201d (\u201cthe stupidest of the stupid,\u201d per one of its less profane definitions in Urban Dictionary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was 2019, the year of the \u201cocto-champs<\/a>\u201d\u2014when the event crowned a wildly unprecedented eight<\/em> winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jacques
Craig Hudson \/ Scripps National Spelling Bee<\/figcaption>
Meeting a young fan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Says Bailly: \u201cWe went into the finals, and I vividly remember calculating that, at the rate the spellers were missing, it would take until about four in the morning to get a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, organizers declared co-champions\u2014which, perhaps surprisingly, the octad embraced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe media kept pushing them, asking, \u2018Don\u2019t you want to figure out who\u2019s champion?\u2019 They said, \u2018No, we like it this way,\u2019\u201d Bailly recalls. \u201cAnd I agree. I think it\u2019s very nice to spread the joy and the rewards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Bailly\u2019s favorite Bee moments are some now-classics, like the time in 2007 when he gave a boy the word \u201csardoodledom\u201d\u2014and the kid completely cracked up, before spelling it correctly and returning to his chair with enormous glee.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Such an outcome became much less likely after the 2021 addition of a \u201cspell-off,\u201d a rapid-fire round in which remaining contestants have 90 seconds to spell as many words correctly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bee also now includes rounds in which competitors tackle multiple-choice questions on vocabulary\u2014ensuring that they not only can spell words correctly, but understand their meanings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Craig Hudson \/ Scripps National Spelling Bee<\/figcaption>
Signing an autograph at the first “Bee-Con” meet-and-greet in 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had reached a pitch of incredible preparation by a core group of spellers who were so good that it was very hard to get them to miss,\u201d Bailly explains. \u201cWhen you bring in vocabulary, it requires a lot more study on their part, and makes it more possible to efficiently get to a champion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked to contemplate the enduring popularity of the Bee\u2014which marked its centennial in 2025\u2014Bailly cites multiple reasons for its appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s the fact that it\u2019s so democratic, with kids from a wide variety of backgrounds competing; then there are the contestants\u2019 reactions, which are often entertainingly unvarnished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

We had reached a pitch of incredible preparation by a core group of spellers who were so good that it was very hard to get them to miss.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Plus, he says, \u201cit\u2019s pretty dramatic; there\u2019s this moment of, \u2018Will they get it right? Will they get it wrong?\u2019 There\u2019s also, \u2018Do I know how to spell that word? Do I even know what that word is?\u2019 There\u2019s this slack-jawed amazement that these kids know these words that adults don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailly\u2019s love affair with competitive spelling began in the sixth grade, when his teacher tapped him to be on the spelling team at his Catholic school. He made it to the national competition on his third try and took home the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jacques
Mark Bowen \/ Scripps National Spelling Bee<\/figcaption>
At the 2018 Bee\u2014whose winning word was “koinonia,” meaning Christian fellowship or spiritual communion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you want to win the National Spelling Bee, you have to make great friends with the dictionary,\u201d he says. \u201cYou need to decide, \u2018Today I\u2019m going to look at all the words that come from Hawaiian, and figure out how they got into English and what they mean\u2019\u2014and then do the same thing with German, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, he says, \u201cyou have to really enjoy words\u2014to have this attitude of \u2018That\u2019s a neat one; I\u2019ll put it in my collection.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

There\u2019s this slack-jawed amazement that these kids know these words that adults don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A Brown undergrad, Bailly did his Cornell classics dissertation on a lesser-known Platonic dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He began volunteering for the Bee in 1990, having offered his services as a past winner with facility in French, German, Greek, and Latin; he started out as an associate pronouncer, taking the lead nearly a quarter-century ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor a lot of kids, the stranger and weirder a word is, the easier it is,\u201d Bailly observes. \u201cA word like \u2018humuhumunukunukuapuaa\u2019 [the Hawaiian state fish] is memorable. It\u2019s the words like \u2018accommodate\u2019 and \u2018embarrass\u2019\u2014those are the hard ones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top: Pronouncing during a preliminary round in 2025. (E.M. Pio Roda \/ Scripps National Spelling Bee)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published April 30, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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