#WordEyeHeard: DFW Teen Wins National Spelling Bee!

Karthik Nemmani, a soft-spoken eighth-grader from McKinney, Texas, hadn’t been to the National Spelling Bee before, but he had already been in a battle with 12-year-old Naysa Modi.

In their county spelling bee, Naysa won, but Thursday, Karthik came out on top — successfully navigating through words like “aver,” “paucispiral,” “ankyloglossia,” “haecceitas” and finally “koinonia” to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The Greek word “koinonia” — most commonly pronounced “koy-nuh-NEE-uh” — is defined as “intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community.”

When asked whether having Naysa, who is from Frisco, and other friends at the national finals helped, the unassuming Karthik said: “Yeah, I guess.”

He smiled, and added, “I guess it gave me a little more confidence.”

When asked at what point he knew he could spell the winning word, the 14-year-old said to laughter: “When I heard it.”

More at CNN

I’m lilD, and that’s the Word Eye Heard. I wonder if he can spell “LET ME HOLD SOMETHING.”

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#WordEyeHeard: DFW Teen Wins National Spelling Bee!

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