Agencies

WASHINGTON, may 31: A 13-year-old Indian-origin boy, Sameer Mishra, won the 81st annual Scripps National Spelling Bee on Friday. Mishra took home a cash prize of $35,000, while winning more than $5,000 in other prizes.

The boy from West Lafayette, Indiana, who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries, aced "guerdon" - a word that appropriately means "something that one has earned or gained" - to win competition.

This was Sameer's fourth year in the competition. His previous attempts saw him finish at 98th, 14th and 16th places in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively.

The second spot was bagged by Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, who stumbled on "prosopopoeia" (a word describing a type of figure of speech). This was Sidharth's first year at the bee.

A record 288 spellers were entered in this year's bee; the 45 semifinalists were the survivors from Thursday's preliminary and quarterfinal rounds. Twelve spellers advanced to the finals, which was aired live on ABC .