See Word McKinney Teen Spelled To Win Scripps Spelling Bee

MCKINNEY, TX — One 16-letter word was all it took for McKinney native Karthik Nemmani to overcome his opponent, a Frisco girl, and win gold Thursday night in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Naysa Modi, 12, is nearly Nemmani's neighbor — living only a few miles away from the victor. She was faced with "Bewusstseinslage," a German-derived word meaning a feeling devoid of sensory components.

Modi, daring to spell a word that would frighten most adults if encountered in a book, paused to type out the word on an imaginary keyboard before spelling it into the microphone.

Modi misspelled the 16-letter word by only two letters, and issued the judges a friendly "thank you" before returning to her seat.

Nemmani had to correctly spell "koinonia" in order to bring home the win, and he did just that. As the lights flashed and the crowd celebrated, Nemmani smiled on.

A Scripps Spelling Bee representative told NBC News the contest saw its largest number of finalists, 16, taken from a record 515 hopefuls.

"They were so good they weren't missing," sayid contest spokeswoman Valerie Miller, "It took us more rounds."

Nemmani will receive a $40,000 cash prize and the Scripps National Spelling Bee engraved trophy. He'll also receive a $2,500 U.S. savings bond and a complete reference library from Merriam-Webster.

Lead image: Karthik Nemmani correctly spells the word 'koinonia' to win the 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center May 31, 2018 in National Harbor, Maryland. Forty one finalists were selected to participate in the final day after a record 516 spellers were officially invited, up from 291 in 2017 . (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)