Dev Shah, a 14 year-old American-Indian eighth-grader from Florida, won the renowned 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee with the word “psammophile” correctly spelled. On Thursday, Shah won the 95th national bee and the USD 50,000 prize by accurately spelling the word.
“It’s surreal…My legs are still shaking,” he said at the competition in National Harbor, Maryland.
The Washington Post newspaper said that Shah triumphed by correctly spelling “psammophile,” a plant or animal that thrives in sandy environments, after much anticipation over a potential spell-off.
“Psammo meaning sand, Greek?” he asked. “Phile, meaning love, Greek?” Shah recognized the word’s origins right away, but asked for all the details just to be safe, grinning slightly as though he was very certain he knew what it meant, according to the New York Times.
Shah’s third effort was this one. His two prior tries took place in 2019 and 2021.
His mother stated that Shah had been preparing for this for four years as his parents jumped on stage, clearly in tears.
After 11 million participants worldwide entered spelling bees, just eleven kids advanced to the finals. Tuesday saw the start of the preliminary rounds, and Wednesday saw the quarterfinals and semifinals.
