Dev Shah, 14, from Largo, Fla., reacts as he wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals, Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Oxon Hill, Md.

Nick Wass/AP

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Nick Wass/AP

Dev Shah, 14, from Largo, Fla., reacts as he wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals, Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Oxon Hill, Md.

Nick Wass/AP

Dev Shah, a 14-year-old from Florida, has gained the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

His successful phrase was “psammophile,” a noun that’s used to explain animals and crops that favor to reside in sandy soil environments, in line with Merriam-Webster.

Shah, an eighth-grader from Largo within the Tampa Bay space, additionally spelled “poliorcetics,” “aegagrus” and “schistorrhachis” accurately to take residence the $50,000 money prize.

This 12 months’s bee was Shah’s third and remaining entry. Shah beforehand competed in 2019 and 2021. The bee started in 1925 and is open to college students by the eighth grade.