The 74th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, D.C., on May 29–31, 2001, sponsored by the E.W. Scripps Company.

Thirteen-year-old Sean Conley, from Anoka, Minnesota, won the competition in the 16th round by correctly spelling the word "succedaneum".^[1][2][3] Conley was appearing in his third bee. He fell in the sixth round in 1999, and placed second in 2000.^[4] Second place went to Kristin Hawkins of Virginia, who missed "resipiscence".^[2]

248 contestants participated in the competition; 138 girls and 110 boys; 170 from public schools, 28 from private schools, 25 from parochial schools, and 25 home-schoolers. Fifty-two spellers had previously participated in a national bee, a new record.^[5]

The bee used a three-day format for the first time this year, though bee staff already planned to return to two days the following year by adding a written-test for the first time. The contest began at 4pm on Tuesday May 29, with one-half of the spellers competing in round one starting at 4pm, and the other half at 7pm.^[6] 178 spellers survived the first day.^[7] Two additional split-rounds continued on Wednesday.^[6] The finals, with survivors from both groups, started at 8am on Thursday and were broadcast on ESPN starting at 10am.^[4][8]

The first place prize was $10,000, and second place took $5000.^[2]