Scripps National Spelling Bee: Sixth-grader spells 'marocain' for the win

After quite the nailbiter, 12-year-old Ananya Vinay became the 2017 Scripps Spelling Bee champion at Thursday night's 90th annual tournament, crushing the competition at last with the correct spelling of "marocain".

In nabbing the trophy, Vinayalso went home with more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.

Though not a finalist, Edith Fuller, 6, was one of the stars of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Vinay has previous won the California State Elementary Spelling Bee thrice.

Still holding the trophy, the Golden State Warriors fan wished her team good luck in the ongoing National Basketball Association finals.

Ananya Vinay showed little emotion as she plowed through word after mystifying word in the final rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Northeast Florida's human dictionary fell short of national glory at the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Ananya's victory broke the bee's three-year streak of ending in a tie. That's after finishing quickly previous year when she was eliminated on multivalent, and tied for 172nd place in her first appearance at the Bee.

Ananya Vinay of California won the spelling bee after 20 championship rounds, winning $40,000.

The bee added a written tiebreaker test this year, but it didn't come into play.

The national bee is a high-profile, high-pressure endurance test as much as a nerd spelling match. It will consist of 12 spelling words, which contestants will handwrite, and 12 multiple-choice vocabulary questions.

"It was just fun to see how far it would go", Ananya said after defeating Rohan Rajeev, 14, of Edmond Oklahoma during the stirring 25-word championship round. Erin Howard, a sixth-grader from Alabama, offered a plea to the judges before receiving her word. She got it wrong, omitting the "v".

"I've had a lot of fun this year, being here", she said.

It was not long, however, before she was foiled by the word saccharomycete, a yeast fungus, and fell out of the competition.

Think you can do better than these kids? When Vinay asked for a definition, Camerota told her it was a word made up by the 45th president. Take our quiz and find out.