Wilmette Middle School Wins Worldwide

WILMETTE, IL — Marie Murphy Middle School in Wilmette scored the highest of all middle schools in Illinois at the 2026 Vocabulary Bowl.

In this year's competition, which was the Vocabulary Bowl's biggest yet with 1.2 million students participating from 122 countries, Marie Murphy Middle School mastered 14,328 words.

"Breaking records is exciting, but what's truly remarkable is what's behind them: millions of students who chose to keep learning, competing and pushing themselves," said Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL Learning, Vocabulary.com's parent company. "The Vocabulary Bowl was built on the idea that learning a new word should feel like a win in itself, and season after season, students and teachers around the world prove just how powerful that motivation can be."

The premise of the Vocabulary Bowl is to turn building a vocabulary into a game. The goal is to make learning new words fun and rewarding for students of all ages and abilities.

Students use Vocabulary.com's adaptive technology to earn points for themselves and their schools. Every word learned helps develop the reading, writing and communication skills students need for school and beyond.