Arvind Mahankali of New York holds his trophy after winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee at National Harbor in Maryland, on May 30, 2013. Mahankali, a 13-year-old from Bayside Hills, New York, won the competition by correctly spelling "knaidel," a kind of dumpling. Mahankali, a student at Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School, had finished third in the contest twice before. #

Contestants in the Scripps National Spelling Bee take the preliminary test, which includes a vocabulary section this year, on May 28, 2013, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Spellers took a 45-minute computer test that probed their knowledge of both spelling and vocabulary. The results were combined with Wednesday's on-stage round to determine which spellers advanced to the semifinals. #

Scripps National Spelling Bee contestant Arvind Mahankali, departs with his younger brother Srinath, 9, after completing the Preliminaries Test phase of the Bee in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on May 28, 2013. #

Parents wave to competitors in the preliminary round of the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor in Maryland, on May 29, 2013. #

Eva Kitlen, 14, of Niwot, Colorado, writes out the word "kleptocrat" in her hand before spelling it correctly during the semifinal round of the National Spelling Bee, on May 30, 2013, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. #

Nadar Chandran, after his daughter Nikitha Chandran, 13, of Valrico, Florida, spelled the word "peristalith" correctly during the semifinal round, on May 30, 2013. At left is Sumita Chandran, Nikitha's mother. #

Osvaldo Sanchez, of Bakersfield, California, waits for his turn during the third round of the National Spelling Bee. Sanchez spelled the word "oligarchic" correctly. #

Jonathan Caldwell, 13, of Hendersonville, Tennessee, shrugs his shoulders after getting the word "pergameneous" incorrect during the semifinal round, on May 30, 2013. #

Eboseremhen Eigbe of Galloway, New Jersey, is comforted by his father after he misspelled the word "meiosis" and was eliminated in round three of the National Spelling Bee, on May 29, 2013. #

Syamantak Payra, 12, of Friendswood, Texas (left) Vanya Shivashankar, 11 of Olathe, Kansas, and Vismaya Kharkar, 14, of Bountiful, Utah wait for their turn to spell a word during the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, on May 30, 2013. #

Speller Vanya Shivashankar is comforted by her father Mirle after she was eliminated in the finals of the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee, on May 30, 2013. Vanya missed the word "zenaida." #

The final three: spellers Arvind Mahankali (right) of Bayside Hills, New York, Pranav Sivakumar (left) of Tower Lakes, Illinois, and Sriram Hathwar (center) of Painted Post, New York, during the finals of the National Spelling Bee, on May 30, 2013. #

Pranav Sivakumar of Tower Lakes, Illinois, in the final round of the National Spelling Bee, on May 30, 2013. Pranav took second place, going out after misspelling "cyanophycean." #

Arvind Mahankali of New York ponders a word on his way to winning the National Spelling Bee at National Harbor in Maryland May 30, 2013. Mahankali, a 13-year-old from Bayside Hills, New York, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday by correctly spelling "knaidel," a kind of dumpling. #

Confetti rains down on Arvind Mahankali, winner of the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee, on May 30, 2013 in National Harbor, Maryland. Arvind won by correctly spelling two words in a row after Pranav Sivakumar went out, "tokonoma", and finally "knaidel", a German-derived Yiddish word. #