81st Scripps National Spelling Bee

81st Scripps National Spelling Bee
George W. Bush with the 2008 Champion Sameer Mishra in the Oval Office, August 13, 2008.
Date	May 2008
Location	Grand Hyatt Washington, Washington, D.C.
Winner	Sameer Mishra
Age	13
Residence	West Lafayette, Indiana
Sponsor	Journal & Courier
Sponsor location	Lafayette, Indiana
Winning word	guerdon
No. of contestants	288
Pronouncer	Jacques Bailly
Preceded by	80th Scripps National Spelling Bee
Followed by	82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee finals took place on May 30, 2008.

The winner was Sameer Mishra, a 13-year-old eighth grader at West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School, in Indiana. He was sponsored by his hometown newspaper, the Journal & Courier. His winning word was . He won $35,000 in cash and more than $5,000 in prizes.

In rounds 3 through 15, Mishra spelled "demitasse", "quadrat", "diener", "hyssop", "macédoine", "basenji", "numnah", "chorion", "nacarat", "sinicize", "hyphaeresis", "taleggio" and "esclandre" correctly, in that order.

In a comical moment during the spelling bee, he mistook the word "numnah" for "numb nut".

Mishra incorrectly spelled "sudation" in Round 2 as "sudatian." However, because a speller's combined score from Rounds 1 and 2 determines whether he or she advances in the competition, a speller can incorrectly spell a word in Round 2 without being eliminated.

As with previous years, coverage was divided amongst American Broadcasting Company properties, the quarter-finals were broadcast on ESPN360, and the semi-finals were aired by ESPN, and the finals were broadcast by ABC. Unlike other ESPN-produced telecasts for ABC, ESPN branding was not used, even though the telecasts adopted the newer-styled ESPN graphics package.