The spelling bee is over - you know you want to see which word won it all

The drama. The trauma. The epic battle that the Scripps National Spelling Bee has become, came to an end on Thursday night; and the orthographically precocious little warrior who took the trophy was an underdog.

Can we get a play-by-play?

Fourteen-year-old Karthik Nemmani of McKinney, Texas, was the winner of the ultimate resume builder for a teenage student — along with $40,000, a trophy, a $2,500 savings bond, and encyclopedias (they still make encyclopedias?). Anyhoo.

Let's set the stage: Karthik had never been to the Spelling Bee before, making him a true outsider and elusive threat. He drew gasps in earlier rounds by successfully spelling "ankyloglossia," "paucispiral," and the ever-tricky "haecceitas." Intimidating, for certain.

In the final round, 12-year-old runner-up Naysa Modi made a mistake that is all too common for us all: she left the second "s" out of "Bewusstseinslage." It was a devastating end to an arduous crusade in a battle of minds.

This isn't the first time Karthik and Naysa have contested for a title — in fact, both of them live near Dallas, and Naysa won over Karthik in their county's spelling bee. The only reason Karthik made it to this year's national competition was through a wildcard program that was just instituted.

But Karthik was gracious about his win, and said of Naysa, "She's a really, really good speller. She deserved the trophy as much as I did. I got lucky."

TELL US THE WORD!

Karthik won by correctly spelling the word: "koinonia." It's Greek, and defined as "intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community."

Not to be redundant, since we all know what it means.

Who are these kids?

Some of these students' parents pay more than $200 an hour to have their prodigies coached by an expert, and the ages of competitors range from 8 to 15. So in the long-term, the real money is in coaching hopeful prospects later.

Not only do kids from every state in the U.S. compete, a number of other countries send their brightest young spellers.

Of the past 23 champions, 19 have had Indian heritage. Karthik is the 14th consecutive Indian-American to win the grand prize.