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Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Smart young people from across the nation compete to become the next National Spelling Bee champion. Above, Lori Anne Madison of Lake Ridge, Va. is the youngest-ever contestant in the National Spelling Bee.

By msnbc.com staff and NBC News

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- "W-i-t-t-i-c-i-s-m." And with that word, correctly spelled byKevin Lazenby, 13, of Opelika, Ala., the85th National Spelling Bee got under way on Wednesday morning.

Each of the 278 participants spells two wordsduring the day's preliminary rounds, and their scores will be combined with their scores from a 50-word computer test they took Tuesday to determine the field of no more than 50 semifinalists, The Associated Press reported. You can follow along with the day's rounds here.

This year's contest included the bee's youngest speller ever: 6-year-old Lori Anne Madison of Lake Ridge, Va. Lori Anne, speller No. 269, correctly spelled "dirigible" during her turn just before noon Wednesday. The Washington Post reported that she asked for a definition, got the word right and quickly took her seat.

But she misspelled "ingluvies" during the third round later that afternoon. Ingluvies means the craw or crop of birds; Lori Anne provided the spelling e-n-g-l-u-v-i-e-s. The error does not eliminate her from the bee but will count toward her final score of the day, which will determine whether she moves on to the semifinals.

Continue reading here:
'D-i-r-i-g-i-b-l-e': 6-year-old nails first word at Spelling Bee