Indian-origin contestant Shrey Parikh has left social media users baffled after effortlessly spelling the word cywyddau at the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Participating in the prestigious event, Parikh was asked to spell the word, a Welsh verse form, which he tackled with ease.
According to Merriam-Webster, cywyddau is a Welsh verse form in couplets or triplets with rhyme and cynghanedd.
The dictionary definition reads, 'verse consisting of couplets of 7-syllable lines with varying cynghanedd and terminal rhyme that falls alternately on accented and on unaccented syllables.'
Parikh, who spelt 31 other words in just 90 seconds, comfortably defeated runner-up Ishaan Gupta of New Jersey, who managed 25 words.
His winning word was a medical term, 'bromocriptine'. Parikh expressed that he was not excited about the spell-off, but accepted the challenge and performed well.
