The BBC challenged Americans to spell words used in the last three Scripps National Spelling Bee competitions.
Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old, won the competition this year after correctly spelling 32 words in a 90-second lighting round tiebreaker. He defeated 12-year-old Ishaan Gupta, who spelled 25 words correctly.
Parikh won out against 247 spellers competing in the annual contest, aged between nine and 15, taking home a $52,000 (£39,000) cash prize.
Video by Meiying Wu and Alex Foster
