Girl, 12, Wins National Spelling Bee With 'Marocain'

For Ananya Vinay, the road to victory ran through heiligenschein, Tchefuncte, zeaxanthin, and cecidomyia. The 12-year-old from Fresno, Calif., won the 90th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night when she correctly spelled "marocain," a French-derived word for a dress fabric, after runner-up Rohan Rajeev stumbled on "marram," a Scandinavian word for a beach grass, the Guardian reports.

After three years of ties, Ananya is the competition's first sole winner since 2013, the AP reports. A written tie-breaker question had been prepared to make sure there was a single winner this year, but judges didn't need to use it. (This year's bee featured the youngest-ever competitor.)