In the Spelling Bee at my school, I scored runner-up 2nd place! Matthew Chen won. The word that I couldn't spell was  bronchitis. It's some sort of disease in the lungs. He will go on to the County Spelling Bee to represent our school. If the winner, Matt, doesn't show up at the next round, I will have to fill in for him.  What does the " Bee " in Spelling Bee mean? I looked that up. First, I searched that on Google. It says: Spelling bee  is apparently an American term. It first appeared in print in 1875, but it seems certain that the word was used orally for several years before that. Those who used the word, including most early students of language, assumed that it was the same word as referred to the insect. Origin of the Term Spelling Bee | Scripps National Spelling ... www. spellingbee .com/origin-term- spelling - bee Scripps National Spelling Bee I also looked at the Scripps National Spelling Bee site. (Click