The typical spelling whiz has limited opportunities to strut his stuff after he graduates from junior high school. Limited to being the know-it-all in his circle of friends or perhaps finding professional fulfillment as a copy editor, he has pitifully few chances to really show off his skills as a man of letters.

That’s why the adults-only spelling bee at the Williamsburg bar Pete’s Candy Store is such a welcome event for the wordy.

The first bee of the year takes place Monday, with additional competitions taking place biweekly until March 21. The top three finishers from each bee face off in the finals on April 11.

Model and writer Jennifer Dziura hosts the bee with singer Bobby Blue. She explains that the triple-elimination event starts with a “confidence-building” round in which the words are so easy that very few of the dozen or so contestants make errors. In the second round, each speller must tackle two words in a row. In the third round, contestants must correctly answer three words in a row.

In the harrowing fourth and final round, those who are still standing spell between eight and 10 words, depending on how much time is left. By this point they are tackling tongue-twisters such as “trichotillomania” and “axolotl.”

The audience remains respectfully hushed, Ms. Dziura reports, with occasional lapses. “Sometimes [a contestant] will be spelling a word, and the audience is the geeky spelling type, so you’ll hear a breath when they get the wrong letter.” And, she concedes, “If I mispronounce a word, everyone will let me know it.”

Though the bee takes place in a bar, the contestants can’t be mistaken for wild types. “They’re coming for the spelling bee; so the people who are competing haven’t been drinking at all,” says Ms. Dziura. (She adds that “people stay and drink afterwards.”)

ESL teacher Megan Rudesill, who won last year’s bee, confirms that most contestants are “returning die-hard spellers.”

In middle school, Ms. Rudesill placed “the lowest one that gets a trophy” in California’s state spelling bee (“a big state!” she points out). She stammered on the word “escapade” and was disqualified, a particularly galling error since the bee took place soon after the release of Janet Jackson’s 1989 song of the same name.

Its lyrics include the helpful “Es-ca-pade, We’ll have a good time, Es-capade, Leave your worries behind.”

So when she saw a flier for the bee posted on Williamsburg’s Bedford Avenue last fall, she decided immediately to attend. “I was like, ‘Whoa, time to relive my spelling glories and exorcise my childhood spelling demons,'” she says with a laugh. She hasn’t missed a single bee at Pete’s Candy Store since.

Monday, 7 p.m. signup, 7:30 p.m. competition, Pete’s Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St., between Frost and Richardson streets, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-302-3770, free to enter, two-drink minimum.