iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
Roughly 11,500 Writers Guild of America members walked off the job in May, angered by how working conditions have changed in the streaming TV era
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Indian-origin Dev Shah, 14, crowned US National Spelling Bee champion, wins $50,000 cash prize
He correctly spelt 'psammophile,' meaning an organism that thrives in sandy soils, in the 15th round of the contest's finals
Photos: Agencies
Dev Shah, a 14-year-old boy from Largo, Florida, won the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, nailing the word "psammophile," meaning an organism that thrives in sandy soils, in the 15th round of the contest's finals.
He edged out fellow eighth-grader Charlotte Walsh, 14, from Arlington, Virginia, who finished in second-place after she misspelled "daviely," a Scottish-rooted word for listlessly, in the 14th round.
Shah, a student at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School, had correctly, and swiftly, spelled "bathypitotmeter" in the 14th round, but under spelling bee rules needed to land one more word to be declared winner.
Shah, who was crowned champion in a hail of confetti before being joined on stage by his parents and other relatives, takes 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.
The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary is the official dictionary of the competition.
Dev, whose hobbies include reading, tennis, playing the cello and solving math problems, 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.
This year's total field comprised 231 children.
The bee is televised live. The excitement is heightened by TV commentators who describe the action as contestants wrack their brains to come up with the correct spellings for often-obscure words.
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.
The 2022 show was broadcast on ION and Bounce, both networks owned by a Scripps subsidiary, after 27 years on the cable sports channel ESPN. ION will again carry this year's finals.
ALSO READ:
More news from World
The mission even asked Emiratis to follow safety instructions issued by authorities
Anthony Sanchez was convicted of raping and murdering 21-year-old Juli Busken, who had just completed her last semester at the University of Oklahoma
Multiple people had notified Google Maps about the collapse in the years leading up to his death and had urged the company to update its route information
As all challenges cannot be addressed at the same time and during just one summit meeting, a build-up with many events are needed to iron out the differences
The news of the transfer to HMP Thameside comes days after a major manhunt was launched after a terrorist suspect escaped Wandsworth prison
The Ukrainian president will also meet with Joe Biden at the White House and will speak with US military leaders at the Pentagon
Police and paramedics arrived but were unable to stop rottweilers attacking their owner