Lauren Merillana, a seventh grader at Robert Frost Middle School, heads to the semifinals at the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort.
Wednesday morning, she correctly spelled monotropic, which means visiting only a single kind of flower for nectar. Then she correctly defined the word tinkerer from a list of three choices, choosing “repairs or adjusts things.
In round six, she correctly spelled echopraxia, which is the involuntary repetition or imitation of another person’s actions.
The 13-year-old will compete Wednesday night. Of the original 242 competing students, only 57 spellers progressed to the semifinals.
#Speller96 Lauren Merillana from MD has answered the vocabulary question for the word tinkerer correctly. https://t.co/egjRvwuGam #spellingbee
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) May 28, 2025
#Speller96 Lauren Merillana from MD has spelled the word echopraxia correctly. https://t.co/egjRvwuGam #spellingbee
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) May 28, 2025
