Indian player Shrey Parikh leaves social media Users were left completely baffled after effortlessly scrolling through one of the strangest words in spelling bee history. Parikh was asked to spell the word cywyddau while competing in the prestigious 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee. While he handled the language challenge with absolute ease, his flawless execution sent the internet into a frenzy. Countless viewers took to social media to express their genuine disbelief, with many jokingly questioning whether the intricate arrangement of letters was a real word or just randomly put together.
What does ‘cywyddau’ mean?
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, it is a form of Welsh poetry “in the form of couplets or occasionally triplets, with rhyme and cynghanedd”.
The dictionary definition is: “A verse consisting of pairs of 7-syllable lines, with varying cynghanedd and final rhyme, falling alternately on stressed and unstressed syllables.”
It also provides an example of how word be used. “Among his loose papers was discovered… the autograph of a Welsh poem, a cywydd by Hopkins himself.”
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the word was invented in South Wales in the 14th century by Dafydd ap Gwilym. He further explained: “ [cywyddau] It was the dominant poetic form in Wales from the 14th to the early 17th centuries; its Golden Age was from the mid-14th to the mid-15th centuries, while its Silver Age was from about 1500 to 1650, when an excessive focus on stylistic rules hindered free poetic expression.
Do people still use “cywyddau”?
Britannia explains that this once-lost word reappeared in the mid-18th century and again in the 19th century. modern welsh poet It is still used by those who prefer strict form to free meter.
What is social media saying?
“Did he just drop the letter?” asked one Another wrote: “I can’t even pronounce ‘Cywyddau’ in my head let alone spell it. Congratulations Shrey!”
A third jokingly commented: “Cywyddau: very aggressive sneeze.” A fourth wrote: “Cywyddau? What?”
In addition to “cywyddau,” Parikh spelled out 31 other words in just 90 seconds. He easily beat runner-up Ishaan Gupta of New Jersey, who completed 25 words. His winning word was the medical term “bromocriptine.”
“I’m not excited at all because, honestly, I feel like regular spelling does a better job of showing what the spelling means,” Parikh told reporters after winning the prestigious award.
“But I accepted that it was going to be over, I calmed myself down, I drank some water… I just tried to take it all in stride and do the best I could.”
