The earliest documented spelling bee was in 1825, but there is evidence that there was a spelling bee before that. This competition was originally formed by the publication of noah webster's spelling book, which was first published in 1786, commonly known as "Blue-backed Speller". In the United States, Webster's spelling books have been used as part of children's basic education curriculum for five generations in a row.

The national spelling bee in the United States was sponsored by Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, 1925, sponsored by Scripps Howard News Agency, 194 1. The Canadian spelling bee started in Toronto 1987. It was originally a regional competition, and it was not until 1996 that players from other provinces were added.

As for why the English name of the spelling bee is called "Spelling Bee", it is still unclear. One of the credible statements is that social activities gathered in the United States for a certain purpose in history are often labeled as "bees", which comes from the meaning of "rushing in groups" and "scrambling to act" [1], similar to "collective labor" in Chinese. For example, at the beginning of 19 century, farmers collectively peeled corn, which was called "peeling bees", and the spelling bee was also called "spelling bees" because of similar situations.