America's national spelling bee champion for this year is a teenager who could spell a few rare words that stumped her peers.
Anamika Veeramani, 14, won the celebrated competition Friday by correctly spelling the word "stromuhr." The Indian-American girl from the central state of Ohio will receive more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.
Stromuhr is listed in few standard English dictionaries, and Veeramani was not required to know its definition in order to win. A stromuhr is a medical instrument used to measure the flow of blood.
Anamika kept a serious expression all the way through the competition, until she finally cracked a smile when she received her trophy. She is the third Indian-American in a row to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Anamika advanced to the final round after correctly spelling a word, "juvia," which eliminated her last three rivals. A juvia is a Brazil nut.
With the spelling bee receiving prime-time coverage on American television, the competition has taken on some new entertaining features. Words have been presented in humorous sentences, like, "The phillumenist had a hard time obtaining fire insurance on his storage unit."
A phillumenist is a person who collects matchbooks.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
