Dev Shah, 14, Crowned Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion — See His Winning Word

"It's surreal... my legs are shaking," Shah said after he was handed the winning trophy

Dev Shah is the winner of the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee!

The 14-year-old from Largo, Florida won the three-day contest on Thursday held in National Harbor, Maryland by successfully spelling out the word "psammophile," which is a plant or animal that thrives in sandy areas.

He narrowly edged out fellow 14-year-old Charlotte Walsh from Merrifield, Virgina, who misspelled the word "daviely," a word for "listlessly" in the 14th round. Shah correctly spelled out the word "bathypitotmeter" in the same round and needed to spell one more word correctly to clinch the win, per Reuters.

“It’s surreal," Shah said after he was handed the winning trophy, according to a video of the moment shared by Scripps. "I didn’t even let it settle in. My legs are still shaking."

Related: Photos of Former National Spelling Bee Champions (and the Words They Won with)

His mother called the moment "very emotional," as she noted that Shah "put in almost 4 years" to try to win the competition, even spending "at least 10 hours" into studying for last year's spelling bee.

Shah has competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee multiple times before, having previously tied for 51st place in 2019 and tied for 76th in 2021, according to CNN.

In addition to winning $50,000, he earned a commemorative medal, the Scripps Cup, as well as a $2,500 cash prize and reference library from Merriam-Webster, $400 of reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica, and $2,000 Scholastic Dollars “to be donated to the school of the Champion’s choice in their honor.”

This year, 231 elementary and middle-school students between the ages of 9 to 14 took part in the annual contest, according to Scripps, which noted the contestants came from all 50 states, as well as the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.

This year's eleven finalists were Shah, 14, Walsh, 14, Dhruv Subramanian, 12, Vikrant Chintanaboina, 14, and Shradha Rachamreddy, 13, all of San Ramon, California; Arth Dalsania, 14 of Thousand Oaks, California; Aryan Khedkar, 12, of Waterford, Michigan; Sarah Fernandes, 11, of Omaha, Nebraska; Pranav Anandh, 14, of Morton, Pennsylvania; Train Nandakumar, 12, of Austin; and Surya Kapu, 14, of Salt Lake City.

Nine contestants were eliminated on Wednesday, before the second night of the finals.

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Last year’s winner, Hariri Logan, was the first champion to win the competition in a “spell-off.” By correctly spelling “moorhen,” a noun defined as the female of the red grouse.

The 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee aired live on ION and Bounce.

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