14-year-old wins Scripps National Spelling Bee after correctly spelling 'koinonia'

Karthik Nemmani.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

This year's Scripps National Spelling Bee champion is 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani of McKinney, Texas, who won the event Thursday night after correctly spelling the Greek word "koinonia."

The finals went 18 rounds, with second place going to Naysa Modi, 12, of Frisco, Texas, who left out the second "S" in the word "bewusstseinslage." There were 516 competitors this year, ranging in age from 8 to 15 — the largest number in the history of the event.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.