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‘Did he just throw letters?’: Indian-origin Shrey Parikh aces ‘cywyddau’ at US spelling bee. Here’s what it means
Indian-origin Shrey Parikh, in addition to ‘cywyddau’, spelt 31 other words in just 90 seconds.
Indian-origin contestant Shrey Parikh has left social media users completely baffled after effortlessly navigating one of the most bizarre words in spelling bee history. Participating in the prestigious 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Parikh was asked to spell the word cywyddau. While he tackled the linguistic challenge with absolute ease, his flawless execution sent shockwaves across the internet. Countless viewers took to social media to express their genuine disbelief, with many jokingly questioning if the complex arrangement of letters was even a real word or simply a random combination thrown together.
What does ‘cywyddau’ mean?
According to Merriam-Webster, it is a Welsh verse form “in couplets or occasionally 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.”
It also provides an example of how the word is used. “found among his loose papers … the autograph of a Welsh poem, a cywydd by Hopkins himself.”
The Britannica reports that the word was developed in the 14th century in South Wales by Dafydd ap Gwilym. It further explained, “It [cywyddau] was the leading Welsh verse form from the 14th to the early 17th century; its golden age was from the mid-14th to the mid-15th century, and its silver age, when excessive concern with stylistic rules hampered free poetic expression, from about 1500 to 1650.
Do people still use the ‘cywyddau’?
Britannia explains that the word, which had been lost, was revived in the mid-18th century and again in the 19th century. The modern Welsh poets who prefer strict forms to free meters still use it.
What did social media say?
“Did he just throw letters?” an X user asked, reacting to a video in which even the host fumbles pronouncing ‘cywyddau’, but Parikh spells it out effortlessly. Another posted, “I can’t even pronounce 'Cywyddau' in my head, let alone spell it. Congrats to Shrey!”
A third jokingly commented, “Cywyddau: a very aggressive sneeze.” A fourth wrote, “Cywyddau? WTH?”
Parikh, in addition to ‘cywyddau’, spelt 31 other words in just 90 seconds. He comfortably defeated runner-up Ishaan Gupta of New Jersey, who managed 25 words. His winning word was a medical term, "bromocriptine”.
“I was not excited at all, because to be honest, regular spelling I feel like is a much better show of what spelling is meant to be,” Parikh told reporters after winning the prestigious award.
“But I accepted the fact that there was going to be a spell-off, I calmed my mind, I got some water … and I just tried to take it all in stride and do the best I could.”
