Dev Shah, 14, of Largo, Fla., won the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Award Thursday night for correctly spelling the word “psammophileTo win the first prize of $50,000.

11 students out of 11 million

11 students have made it to the finals after 11 million people entered spelling bee contests around the world, Shah said in an interview on Friday on TV.cnn This morning,” “I didn’t know if it was happening — was it real or not?”

The preliminary rounds were held on Tuesday, while the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held on Wednesday, and in the Thursday finals in National Harbor, Maryland, Dave wrote correctly schistorrhachis Andaegagrus Andrommack Andtolsester.

The child indicated the use of some words from a dictionary Merriam-Webster his own, he sure knows how to spell, laborious And gruelingAnd AugeanAndmoiling.

He told the network CNN: “When you are on stage, nerves work on you… Even if the speakers don’t show it, there is pressure on us.” psammophile An organism that prefers or thrives in soil or sandy areas, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Dave competition

Dave, 14-year-old Charlotte Walsh of Merrifield, Virginia, competed for the bottom two, winning $25,000 for finishing second after spelling akuammineAnd Jhangarcorrectly.

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 company responsible for the competition, as more than 180 contestants were participating for the first time, and Dave had previously ranked 51st in 2019.