14-year-old Indian-American kid Dev Shah wins US National Spelling Bee with the word ‘psammophile’
The boy from Largo, Florida won the contest's $50,000 prize money as he become the 95th champion.
Indian-American eighth-grader from Florida, Dev Shah, 14, was crowned 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion for the word “psammophile,”meaning an organism that thrives in sandy soils, in the 15th round of the contest’s finals. He became the 95th Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
Dev Shah edged out fellow eighth-grader Charlotte Walsh from Virginia, who finished in second place after she misspelled “daviely,” a Scottish-rooted word for listlessly, in the 14th round.
Shah was crowned champion in a hail of confetti before being joined on stage by his parents and other relatives. He took home $50,000 cash from E.W. Scripps Co, the bee’s sponsor, plus further monetary prizes and reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, Reuters reported.
Dev’s hobbies include reading, tennis, playing the cello, and solving math problems. He tied for 51st place in the 2019 edition of the spelling bee and tied for 76th place in 2021.
He was among 11 contestants, aged 11 to 14, who advanced to the finals of this year’s event after beating out a field of 220 other competitors participating in the three-day contest, held in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C, as per Reuters reports.
This year, the total field comprised 94 girls, 134 boys, and two spellers who identify as nonbinary. One competitor did not specify a gender.
Last year, Harini Logan, 14, from San Antonio, Texas, correctly spelled 22 words during a 90-second spell-off to claim the top prize. It was the first time a spell-off decided the prestigious competition, which began in 1925.
