A seventh-grader from Dr. Augustine Ramirez Intermediate School in Eastvale advanced to the third round of Scripps National Spelling Bee Tuesday at Constitution Hall in Washington.
In the first round, Victoria Li correctly spelled hoi polloi, a plural noun meaning the general populace, according to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
In the second round, she was asked the vocabulary question, “Opacity means?” and correctly chose “lack of transparency or translucency.”
Victoria will join the other spellers who advanced to the third round in taking a written test at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The scores from the written test will determine who will advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Under bee rules, spellers will be grouped by their number of correct answers. The number of spellers to advance will be determined by identifying the group whose minimum score results in as close to 100 quarterfinalists as possible.
Victoria qualified for the national bee by winning the Riverside County Spelling Bee for the second consecutive year, correctly spelling “ejecta” — meaning to expel an object, as from an eruption — as her final word.
She was eliminated in the sixth round of Scripps National Spelling Bee when she misspelled ablegate, giving the fourth letter of the noun meaning a papal envoy on a special mission as an “i” instead of an “e.”
Victoria was among the 16 spellers tying for 58th.
The 12-year-old’s hobbies are archery, writing and reading. She also loves playing the clarinet and doing anything that is hands-on. In her free time, she enjoys improvising songs, experimenting with different instruments and spending time in her garden, especially climbing trees, according to biographical information supplied by bee organizers.
Her favorite thing in the world is school because she loves learning new things and being around the people she enjoys. Swans are her favorite animal, croquembouche, a cone-shaped stack of cream puffs coated with caramelized sugar, her favorite word, and “Sunrise on the Reaping” her favorite book.
The bee began with a field of 247 spellers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates and a Department of Defense School in Germany.
The bee is limited to students who have not passed beyond the eighth grade or an international equivalent on or before Aug. 31, 2025 and who were born on Sept. 1, 2010 or later.
The bee will conclude Thursday. The winner will receive $50,000 from Scripps National Spelling Bee, $2,500 and a reference library from Encyclopaedia Britannica, $400 in reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica, including a 1768 Encyclopaedia Britannica replica set and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium, two-day admission for up to four people, a two-night hotel stay, astronaut meet & greet, and $350 in merchandise from the Kennedy Space Center & Visitors Complex and $1,000 in flight credits from Delta Air Lines.
This is the first time the bee has been held in Washington since 2010. It was held there from its inception in 1925 through 2010. It was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, in National Harbor, Maryland from 2011 through 2025, except for 2020 when it was not held because of the coronavirus pandemic and 2021 when it was held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando, Florida.
Tuesday’s preliminaries were being streamed on Scripps Sports Network through noon Pacific Daylight Time. Wednesday’s quarterfinals will be streamed on Scripps Sports Network from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and the semifinals from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The semifinals will be replayed on ION from 5 to 7 p.m.
Thursday’s finals will air live on ION from 5 to 7 p.m.