Know the words Spelling Bee's 14-year-old winner Zaila Avant-garde was asked to spell

Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde from US' Louisiana became the first African-American to win the 96-year-old Scripps National Spelling Bee. Indian-Americans, who have been dominating the National Spelling Bee for years, secured the second and third positions. Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from San Francisco and Bhavana Madini, 13, from New York won second and third place, respectively. The competition was attended by US First Lady Jill Biden.

Zaila Avant-garde was asked to spell the words alpargata, elevenses, tubifex, querimonious, velarium, solidungulate, rolamite, ancistroid, duchesse and depreter. The 14-year-old, who received a cash prize of $50,000, also correctly spelled fidibus, nepeta, retene and murraya.

"It was the smile and twirls for us! After tying for 370th place in 2019, #Speller133 Zaila Avant-garde wins the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Congrats to all of our spellers. We're proud of everyone's poise and courage in facing the dictionary. #SpellingBee #TheBeeIsBack," Scripps National Spelling Bee tweeted after the competition, which was not held last year due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

She hopes to one day play in the Women's National Basketball Association.

According to her bio on the bee's website, Avant-garde previously competed in 2019. She is an avid reader who demonstrated a strong interest in words from a very early age. Beyond her love for words and language, she enjoys learning new things, playing basketball, listening to music and podcasts, and hanging out with her family, it said.

Jill Biden congratulated Avant-garde on her historic win "Congratulations Zaila!!!," she tweeted.

The National Bee is a high-profile, high-pressure endurance test as much as a nerd spelling match and spellers spend months preparing for it.

(With agency inputs)