Kavya Shivashankar of india was the Champion of Spelling Bee 2009

A spelling bee is a competition where contestants (children), are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States, and is usually perceived to be a solely English language practice. Today, National Spelling Bee competitions for English are held in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Indonesia and others.



Kavya Shivashankar (13-years-old) an eighth grader from Olathe, Kansas, correctly spelled "Laodicean" to win the National Spelling Bee competition 2009 Thursday night. She spelled the winning word "Laodicean" means - lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics.

Kavya won at the end of a championship round in which runner-up Tim Ruiter was eliminated on "maecenas" and third-place finisher Aishwarya Pastapur was eliminated on "menhir".

In earlier rounds, Kavya spelled challenging words like "hydrargyrum", "blancmange" and "baignoire". In the fourth round, she correctly spelled "huisache", It means - Thorny shrub or small tree. Then it was ecossaise, a musical term, and diacoele, a structure in the brain.