The Scripps National Spelling Bee will accept “womyn” as a spelling of “women.”
A Scripps spokesperson told Fox News that all the words used in the competition come from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, which lists “womyn” as an alternate spelling for “women.”
“All of the words used in the Scripps National Spelling Bee program are pulled from our official dictionary, Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. During competition, our policy is to accept any correct spelling listed in our official dictionary that isn’t marked archaic or obsolete. The alternate spelling ‘womyn’ is therefore included on our study list because it is listed as an alternate spelling for ‘women’ in Merriam-Webster,” a spokesperson said.
The added that “[i]n building our study lists, we aim to include alternate spellings for any words that have them listed in Merriam-Webster. The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary is the final authority and sole source for the spelling of all words offered in competition.”
The term is found on a third-grade study word sheet.
In 2022, the Merriam-Webster online dictionary included the definition for a woman as “having a gender identity that is the opposite of a male.” At the time, Merriam-Webster’s primary definition of female was: “Of, relating to, or being the sex that typically has the capacity to bear young or produce eggs.”
The Cambridge Dictionary similarly changed the definition of “man” and “woman” in 2022 to include gender identity rather than biological sex. “Woman” was defined as “an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth,” while a “man” was defined as “an adult who lives and identifies as male though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth.”
