--- title: Spelling Bee 2017: Reactions to Marocain, the Winning Word description: Marocain, the winning word at the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee, has gone viral canonical: https://time.com/4802971/national-spelling-bee-words/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-02T14:40:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:08.495Z og:title: The Internet Wants to Know What the Winning Spelling Bee Word Means og:description: The winning word "marocain" is everywhere now. og:url: https://time.com/4802971/national-spelling-bee-words/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacfc207a981b9d3f/6988cfeabc6cfce6073e1a63/gettyimages-691349380-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Students Compete In The Finals Of The Scripps National Spelling Bee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Wants to Know What the Winning Spelling Bee Word Means twitter:description: The winning word "marocain" is everywhere now. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacfc207a981b9d3f/6988cfeabc6cfce6073e1a63/gettyimages-691349380-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # No One on the Internet Knows What the Winning National Spelling Bee Word Even Means > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 2, 2017 2:40 PM UTC  NATIONAL HARBOR, MD - JUNE 01: Ananya Vinay of Fresno, CA. won the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee by spelling the word "marocain", at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center June 1, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland. Close to 300 spellers are competing in the annual spelling contest for the top honor this year. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) NATIONAL HARBOR, MD - JUNE 01: Ananya Vinay of Fresno, CA. won the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee by spelling the word "marocain", at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center June 1, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland. Close to 300 spellers are competing in the annual spelling contest for the top honor this year. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 2, 2017 2:40 PM UTC The winning word from Thursday’s night’s [Scripps National Spelling Bee](http://time.com/4800680/scripps-spelling-bee-youngest-speller/) is all over social media. After champion [Ananya Vinay](http://time.com/4802703/scripps-national-spelling-bee-ananya-vinay-winner/) breezed through words like “zeaxanthin,” “brabancon,” “sceloporus” and other softball spelling challenges, she ended with “marocain.” What is it? The internet does not know. It’s a kind of fabric, which puzzled many who took to Twitter to say how impressed they were with her victory because they never even heard of the word. Specifically, marocain is “a type of dress fabric of ribbed crepe, made of silk or wool or both,” according to the Oxford Dictionary. Vinay will take home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes, and the rest of the world will take home some new vocabulary. See some of the internet’s confusion below. > [](https://twitter.com/blackcatbaby/status/870497593410727936) > [](https://twitter.com/willwphoto/status/870596417697480705) > [](https://twitter.com/AllanM88/status/870598200230543360) > [](https://twitter.com/BradVantageous/status/870507987898585088) > [](https://twitter.com/BarryCarothers/status/870605765572255746) > [](https://twitter.com/Sunriseanchor/status/870546155343462400) > [](https://twitter.com/ChrisStover/status/870510369701191684) > [](https://twitter.com/mctaylo/status/870509519297691648) Luckily some were kind enough to go the extra step and supply the definition > [](https://twitter.com/PeterSokolowski/status/870481936057323524) > [](https://twitter.com/khinman/status/870487441718640640) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4802971/national-spelling-bee-words/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4802971/national-spelling-bee-words/"},"headline":"No One on the Internet Knows What the Winning National Spelling Bee Word Even Means","datePublished":"2017-06-02T14:40:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:08.495Z","description":"Marocain, the winning word at the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee, has gone viral","url":"https://time.com/4802971/national-spelling-bee-words/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","language","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacfc207a981b9d3f/6988cfeabc6cfce6073e1a63/gettyimages-691349380-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacfc207a981b9d3f/6988cfeabc6cfce6073e1a63/gettyimages-691349380-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Students Compete In The Finals Of The Scripps National Spelling Bee","caption":"Students Compete In The Finals Of The Scripps National Spelling Bee","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4802971/national-spelling-bee-words/","name":"No One on the Internet Knows What the Winning National Spelling Bee Word Even Means"}}]}] ```