Fourteen-year-old Dev Shah, a resident of Largo, Florida, emerged as the victor in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee. According to a Reuters report, he secured the championship by correctly spelling “psammophile,” denoting an organism that thrives in sandy soils. Dev Shah triumphed over eighth-grader Charlotte Walsh from Virginia, who finished in second place after misspelling “daviely,” a word of Scottish origin that means listlessly, during the 14th round of the competition.
A student at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School, Dev Shah had spelled “bathypitotmeter” correctly in the 14th round. However, as per the spelling bee rules, he needed to spell one more word accurately to claim the title.
In a jubilant ceremony filled with confetti, Dev Shah was crowned the champion and celebrated on stage with his parents and other relatives. As reported by Reuters, he received a cash prize of $50,000 from the bee’s sponsor, E.W. Scripps Co., along with additional monetary rewards and reference materials from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster. It’s worth noting that the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary is the official dictionary used in the competition.
Dev Shah’s interests encompass reading, tennis, playing the cello, and solving math problems. In the previous editions of the spelling bee, he achieved a tie for the 51st position in 2019 and a tie for the 76th position in 2021.
Out of the 220 participants in this year’s three-day contest held in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., Dev Shah was one of the 11 finalists aged between 11 and 14. Reuters reported that the total field comprised 94 girls, 134 boys, and two nonbinary spellers, with one competitor not specifying their gender.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is broadcasted live on television, and the excitement is heightened by the commentary of TV hosts, who describe the intense competition as the contestants rack their brains to correctly spell often-obscure words.
Last year, the prestigious competition, which originated in 1925, saw Harini Logan, a 14-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, emerge as the winner after correctly spelling 22 words in a 90-second spell-off. It was the first time a spell-off had determined the outcome of the competition.