The 92nd Scripps National Spelling Bee ended with a record number of winners on Thursday after eight contestants spelled their way through 20 rounds of grueling words.

The field of 592 contestants had been whittled down to eight when, in the competition’s 17th round, organizers announced that any contestant who spelled three more words correctly would be crowned champion.

It’s not the first time there’s been a tie in the annual spelling competition – in fact, there have been six two-way ties in the bee’s history, including each year from 2014 to 2016. But bee officials said this year’s event was the only to end with more than two champions.

Each of the eight champions will receive a $50,000 prize and a trophy.

Since the inaugural competition in 1925, the words featured in the bee have become increasingly more difficult and obscure, requiring participants to have a commanding knowledge of root words, etymology, and world languages.

Scripps's list of "winning words" from previous competitions gives a glimpse at this evolution. Relatively simple words such as "knack," "therapy," and "initials" dominated earlier installments of the spelling bee, while modern-day champions have had to tackle humdingers like "feuilleton," "nunatak," and "gesellschaft."

The words spelled by this year's co-champions in the final round include "auslaut," "bougainvillea," and "pendeloque."

The shift in difficulty can be partly attributed to ESPN's coverage of the bee, which has attracted more students to the competition, Scripps spokeswoman Valerie Miller said. This was the 26th year ESPN aired the spelling bee.

But the biggest reason is simply that the spellers have gotten better.

"Words are more difficult now because the skills of the students also have expanded," Miller told Business Insider 2017. "These are the best of the best spellers, and the words they get in the national finals should be the greatest challenge."

Here are some of the championship-clinching words from previous spelling bees. You can find the full list of winning words below:

1925 — gladiolus

Foto: Ten-year-old Pat Kelly, a member of the 1925 National Spelling Bee team, center left, stands next to President Calvin Coolidge.sourceAP

The championship word from the inaugural National Spelling Bee in 1925 was "gladiolus," a flowering plant in the iris family.

Eleven-year-old Frank Neuhauser of Kentucky correctly spelled it to take home the top prize - $500 in gold pieces and a trip to the White House.

When he returned to Louisville, crowds greeted him with a ticker-tape parade and bouquets of aptly chosen gladiolus flowers, according to The Washington Post's obituary of Neuhauser, who died in 2011.

The New York Times called Neuhauser's winning word "a cakewalk by modern standards" that "harks back to simpler times."

In the photo to the right, sixth-place finisher Patrick Kelly poses with President Calvin Coolidge.

1936 — eczema

Foto: Photo from a 1936 edition of The Daily Illini shows competitors touring Washington DC.sourceIllinois Daily Newspaper Collections

Jean Trowbridge of Iowa correctly spelled "eczema" - a skin condition - to clinch the 1936 spelling bee. She also had to correctly spell "predilection," which another finalist had missed.

Three decades later, "eczema" would resurface as the winning word at the 1965 bee.

1960 — eudaemonic

Foto: From left to right, Betty Jean Altachul, Henry Feldman, and Marie Inserra shake hands with James Wagner, director of the 1960 spelling bee.sourceAP

Henry Feldman of Tennessee correctly spelled "eudaemonic" to win the 1960 spelling bee. "Eudaemonic" means "producing happiness."

1967 — chihuahua

Foto: Jennifer Reinke of Deshler, Neb., holds up her cup as the new champion of the 1967 National Spelling BeesourceAP

Jennifer Reinke of Nebraska clinched the 1967 title by correctly spelling "chihuahua." The dog breed shares its name with the Mexican state it originates from.

1970 — croissant

Foto: A photo from the 1970 National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., with Leslie Ann Liebeno of Leavenworth, Kan., at the microphone spelling her first word.sourceAP

Libby Childress of North Carolina aced the word "croissant" to win the 1970 title.

1978 — deification

Foto: Peg McCarthy of Topeka, Kansas, spells the world "deification" to win the 51st National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., June 8, 1978. The runner-up Lyn Sue Kahng, seated left, puts her head in her handssourceAP

"Deification" was the winning word at the 1978 spelling bee, correctly spelled by Peg McCarthy of Kansas.

"Deification" is the act of treating someone like a god.

1987 — staphylococci

Foto: Stephanie Petit, 13-year-old eighth grader from Bethel Park, Penn., reacts after wining the National Spelling Bee as she holds the winner's trophy in Washington, D.C., May 28, 1987.sourceAP

By the mid-1980s, the words used in the spelling bee finals became dramatically more difficult. Stephanie Petit of Pennsylvania won the 1987 bee by spelling "staphylococci," the plural form of a type of disease-causing bacteria.

1998 — chiaroscurist

Foto: Jody-Anne Maxwell, 12, of Ardenne High School in Kingston, Jamaica, flanked by her mother Shirley, left, and coach Rev. Glen O.J. Archer, holds her trophy after winning the 71st annual National Spelling Bee in Washington, Thursday, May 28, 1998.sourceAP

Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica won the 1998 spelling bee, becoming the first non-American champion in the event's history.

Maxwell clinched the championship by spelling "chiaroscurist," a painter who uses shadows and exaggerated light contrasts for artistic effect.

2005 — appoggiatura

Foto: Anurag Kashyap of San Diego, California shyly covers his face while being interviewed after winning the 78th Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in 2005.sourceMark Wilson/Getty Images

San Diego's Anurag Kashyap won the 2005 spelling bee by spelling "appoggiatura," a word for an embellishing musical note.

2011 — cymotrichous

Foto: Sukanya Roy, 14, of South Abington Township, Pa., holds the trophy after winning the National Spelling Bee in 2011.sourceAP

Sukanya Roy of Pennsylvania won the 2011 spelling bee by correctly spelling "cymotrichous," a way to describe wavy hair.

2015 — scherenschnitte; nunatak

Foto: Vanya Shivashankar, second from left, 13, of Olathe, Kan., and Gokul Venkatachalam, right, 14, of St. Louis, are greeted onstage by their families as co-champions after winning the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 28, 2015, in Oxon Hill, Md.sourceAP/Andrew Harnik

Two spellers were named co-champions in 2015 after the finalists exhausted the entire list of words.

Vanya Shivashankar of Kansas correctly spelled "scherenschnitte" - the art of paper cutting - to earn her share of the title.

Missouri's Gokul Venkatachalam clinched with an equally obscure word - "nunatak," a word of Greenlandic origin referring to a hill or mountain completely surrounded by glacial ice.

2016 — Feldenkrais; gesellschaft

Foto: Nihar Janga, 11, of Austin, Texas, and Jairam Hathwar, 13, of Painted Post, N.Y., hold up the trophy after being named co-champions at the 2016 National Spelling Bee.sourceJacquelyn Martin/AP

2016's spelling bee ended in another tie after finalists exhausted the entire word list.

The two winning words were "Feldenkrais," spelled by Jairam Hathwar of New York, and "gesellschaft," spelled by Nihar Sai Reddy Janga of Texas.

"Feldenkrais" is a type of exercise therapy devised by Israeli engineer Moshe Feldenkrais. "Gesellschaft," in social theory, is a word for a society in which human relations are impersonal.

2019 — auslaut; erysipelas; bougainvillea; aiguillette; pendeloque; palama; cernuous; odylic

Foto: Co-champions of the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee, from left, Shruthika Padhy, 13, of Cherry Hill, N.J., Erin Howard, 14, of Huntsville, Ala., Rishik Gandhasri, 13, of San Jose, Calif., Christopher Serrao, 13, of Whitehouse Station, N.J., Saketh Sundar, 13, of Clarksville, Md., Sohum Sukhatankar, 13, of Dallas, Texas, Rohan Raja, 13, of Irving, Texas, and Abhijay Kodali, 12, of Flower Mound, Texas, hold the trophy in Oxon Hill, Md.sourceAP/Susan Walsh

This year's spelling bee ended with a record eight winners after the final three rounds failed to stump any of the remaining contestants.

Event organizers announced in the 17th round that any contestant who could make it through three more rounds would be named a champion.

"We do have plenty of words remaining in our list, but we'll soon run out of words that will challenge you," event pronouncer Jacques Bailly told the contestants.

"We're throwing the dictionary at you. And so far, you are showing this dictionary who is boss."

The eight remaining contestants correctly spelled 47 consecutive words en route to their joint championship.

And here's the list of every winning word since 1925:

Foto:

1925 - gladiolus

1926 - cerise

1927 - luxuriance

1928 - albumen

1929 - asceticism

1930 - fracas

1931 - foulard

1932 - knack

1933 - torsion

1934 - deteriorating

1935 - intelligible

1936 - interning

1937 - promiscuous

1938 - sanitarium

1939 - canonical

1940 - therapy

1941 - initials

1942 - sacrilegious

1946 - semaphore

1947 - chlorophyll

1948 - psychiatry

1949 - dulcimer

1950 - meticulosity

1951 - insouciant

1952 - vignette

1953 - soubrette

1954 - transept

1955 - crustaceology

1956 - condominium

1957 - schappe

1958 - syllepsis

1959 - catamaran

1960 - eudaemonic

1961 - smaragdine

1962 - esquamulose

1963 - equipage

1964 - sycophant

1965 - eczema

1966 - ratoon

1967 - Chihuahua

1968 - abalone

1969 - interlocutory

1970 - croissant

1971 - shalloon

1972 - macerate

1973 - vouchsafe

1974 - hydrophyte

1975 - incisor

1976 - narcolepsy

1977 - cambist

1978 - deification

1979 - maculature

1980 - elucubrate

1981 - sarcophagus

1982 - psoriasis

1983 - Purim

1984 - luge

1985 - milieu

1986 - odontalgia

1987 - staphylococci

1988 - elegiacal

1989 - spoliator

1990 - fibranne

1991 - antipyretic

1992 - lyceum

1993 - kamikaze

1994 - antediluvian

1995 - xanthosis

1996 - vivisepulture

1997 - euonym

1998 - chiaroscurist

1999 - logorrhea

2000 - demarche

2001 - succedaneum

2002 - prospicience

2003 - pococurante

2004 - autochthonous

2005 - appoggiatura

2006 - Ursprache

2007 - serrefine

2008 - guerdon

2009 - Laodicean

2010 - stromuhr

2011 - cymotrichous

2012 - guetapens

2013 - knaidel

2014 - feuilleton; stichomythia

2015 - scherenschnitte; nunatak

2016 - Feldenkrais, gesellschaft

2017 - marocain

2018 - koinonia

2019 - auslaut; erysipelas; bougainvillea; aiguillette; pendeloque; palama; cernuous; odylic