Yeah. Basically there is however many people are participating, and one by one they come up to the front and have to spell a word. If you misspell, you are eliminated and on down till one is left.

I've never actually participated in one, but I used to watch them when they showed the national spelling bees on ESPN, and then I watched Spellbound which was about that. The kids who go on the national competitions are insane. They're like 12 and younger, and they spell 15 letter words from languages like italian and greek. @_@