69th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 69th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, D.C., on May 29–30, 1996, sponsored by the E.W. Scripps Company.

Twelve-year-old Wendy Guey, from West Palm Beach, Florida won the competition by correctly spelling the word "vivisepulture". This was Guey's fourth bee, her previous best was fourth-place in the 1993 bee. Second place went to 13-year old Nikki Dowdy of Houston, Texas, who missed "cervicorn".

There were 247 participants this year, 51% female, with about one-fourth coming from a private or parochial school, and 12 home-schoolers.