Dev Shah is National Spelling Bee champion
- Community Education Headline
Arun Kumar- 0
- 5 minutes read
Indian American teenager is the 22nd Bee champion with a South Asian heritage in the last 24 years
Dev Shah, a 14-year-old Indian American student from Largo, Florida, spelled “psammophile”— an organism which thrives in sandy soils and areas — correctly to win the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee and the $50,000 prize.
“It’s surreal. … My legs are still shaking,” Dev said as he collected the trophy after the finals in National Harbor, Maryland on Thursday night, joined by his family. His mother said she was “very proud” of him.
Read: Indian American teen Harini Logan wins 2022 National Spelling Bee in lightning round tiebreaker (June 3, 2022)
On way to the top, Dev correctly spelled schistorrhachis, aegagrus, rommack and tolsester. In the word meaning round, Dev picked the right definition of chiromancy, identifying it as someone who tells fortunes using lines on the palm of the hand.
The student at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School in Pinellas Park, Florida, also won $2,000 in book money to be donated to the school of his choice, a $2,500 cash and reference book award from Merriam-Webster, and $400 worth of reference material from Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Dev went through a total of 15 rounds and spelt each word correctly to reach the top. In the first round, he spelt the word “ardoise,”, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a grayish purple that is stronger than telegraph blue, bluer and deeper than mauve gray, and bluer and paler than average rose mauve”.
In the second round, Dev was asked the meaning of grotesqueness which he described as “comically out of place or absurd.” Following this, Dev gave the correct spelling of “cocomat”, which means a mat made from coconut fibre, and also spelt the word “exhortation” correctly to clear the fourth round.
The teenager then defined the word “glower” as “to look or stare with sullen brooding annoyance or anger” and also chose the right definition of words like legerdemain and chiromancy.
Other words that were spelt correctly by Dev included perioeci, poliorcetics, schistorrhachis, aegagrus, and rommack. In the 13th round, Dev picked the correct spelling of tolsester, which is “a toll paid to the feudal lord by a tenant for liberty to brew and sell ale.”
Dev Shah also competed in 2019 and 2021 when he tied for the 51st and 76th place, respectively. He is said to be the 22nd champion of the competition with a South Asian heritage in the last 24 years.
The 14th round of the spelling competition had only two competitors left – Dev and another teenager named Charlotte Walsh from Merrifield, Virginia. Charlotte misspelt the word “daviely” as “daevilick” and lost the round to Dev, who spelt “bathypitotmeter” correctly.
She earned $25,000 for reaching second place after correctly spelling akuammine, collembolous and Jhangar
Besides Dev, seven other Indian Americans students made the final 11 including Shradha Rachamreddy, 13, from San Jose, California, Vikrant Chintanaboina, 14, also from San Jose, Dhruv Subramanian, 12, of San Ramon, Arth Dalsania, 14, of Camarillo, Aryan Khedkar,12, from Rochester Hills, Michigan, Pranav Anandh, 14, from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, and Tarini Nandakumar,12, Round Rock, Texas.
Vanya Shivashankar, a 2015 co-champion, has been involved in the bee telecast ever since and this year was promoted to the role of master of ceremonies — a task that last year fell to “Star Trek” actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton.
The bee had co-champions from 2014 to 2016 before the “octo-champs” of 2019, but ties are impossible under the current rules.
If the contest reaches the 1-hour, 55-minute mark without a winner, the remaining spellers compete in a lightning-round tiebreaker.
Surya Kapu, a 14-year-old from South Jordan, Utah, was the only returning finalist. He finished tied for fifth last year.
As many as 11 million people entered spelling competitions throughout the world. The preliminary rounds were held Tuesday, while the quarterfinals and semifinals took place Wednesday.
Read: 14-year-old Dev Shah of Florida wins Scripps National Spelling Bee with final word ‘psammophile’ (June 2, 2023)
The 231 elementary and middle school students in the national spelling bee this year were as young as 9 and as old as 14.
There were contestants from every US state, and 11 students from the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico, according to the E.W. Scripps Company that organizes the Bee.
More than 180 were National Spelling Bee first-timers, and 49 were returning contestants. The national spelling bee began in 1925.