Words

The finals of the US Spelling Bee competition are held in Washington tonight.

Last year's championship was won by 13 year-old Sameer Mishra from Lafayette in Indiana. Mishra, who won the trophy participating for the first time in the spelling bee competition, took home a cash prize of $35,000.

The word that Mishra spelled to finally win the competition was "guerdon," a term meaning 'something that one has earned or gained'.

And this year's winner is 13 year old Kavya Shivashankar who spelled 'laodicean', which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics, to win the championship. Cool and collected, Kavya Shivashankar wrote out every word on her palm and always ended with a smile. She is taking home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and, of course, the huge champion's trophy.