A Wisconsin speller is out after having some early success during the Scripps Spelling Bee on Wednesday.

The Spelling Bee started Tuesday morning with 231 spellers taking the stage. Tuesday night, that number shrunk down to about 70 or so spellers making it to the next round, the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals then began Wednesday at 7 a.m. He made it through that round and into the semifinals, where he was eliminated during the meaning round.

Aiden spelled the word ctenidium correctly during the semifinals but failed to define obviate.

Aiden Wijeyakulasuriya was the only contender from Wisconsin in the Bee. He is from Madison.

Aiden's progress through the quarterfinals

Aiden successfully spelled glomerulonephritis.

Then, during the meaning round of the quarterfinals, Aiden successfully defined forswear.

The semifinals began at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. For details on how and where to watch, head to the spelling bee website!

Aiden's progress heading into the quarterfinals

He was able to spell the word "bahuvrihi," which is a noun and means " a class of compound words whose meanings follow the formula having a 'B' that is 'A', where 'A' stands for the first constituent of the compound and 'B' for the second."

Aiden also answered the word meaning question for the word "meridian."

Later in the evening, Aiden spelled the word "burpee" correctly and advanced to the Quarterfinals!

Aiden is from Middleton and previously competed in 2019 where he tied for 51st place.

The annual spelling bee competition is in its 95th year.

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