Dev Shah, a 14-year-old from Florida, has won the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Shah’s winning word was “psammophile,” a noun that is used to describe animals and plants that prefer to live in sandy soil environments, according to Merriam-Webster.
Shah, an eighth-grader from Largo in the Tampa Bay area, also spelled “poliorcetics,” “aegagrus” and “schistorrhachis” correctly to take home the $50,000 cash prize.