Kicker: Scripps winner

NICK EICHER, HOST: The 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion is 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani.

He won that honor last week by correctly spelling a word you may have only heard your pastor pronounce.

AUDIO: Koinonia. K-O-I-N-O-N-I-A. Koinonia. That is correct!

Koinonia is an intimate spiritual or Christian communion.

Nemmani will receive a cash prize of $25,000, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, and a pizza party for his school.

The young man says he’ll spend the winnings on college and plans to study technology.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Karthik Nemmani, 14, from McKinney, Texas, left, is given his trophy after winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee, by President and CEO of the E.W. Scripps Company Adam Symson, right, as confetti falls in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, May 31, 2018. 

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.