Fort Washington, Maryland - Mastering words such as "cricetine" (a type of rodent) and "indumentum" (a covering of hairs on a plant or animal), 12-year-old Bruhat Soma clinched victory Thursday in the National Spelling Bee!

The seventh-grader from St. Petersburg, Florida, beamed as colorful confetti rained down after he won the tiebreaker.

"Bruhat Soma from Florida cemented his win by correctly spelling his final word, 'abseil'," organizer Scripps National Spelling Bee announced on X.

Soma, who also competed in the past two annual competitions, will take home a $50,000 prize and a championship trophy.

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"I never expected this," he said at a news conference after his win at the National Harbour in Maryland.

The boy told reporters that there was only one word he did not recognize – but luckily it wasn't his turn.

Soma correctly spelled 29 words in 90 seconds during the competition's second-ever "spell-off" tiebreaker.

It was enough to see him put 12-year-old Faizan Zaki from Dallas, Texas, in second place.

In earlier rounds, Soma correctly spelled 10 words right, including "coulisse" – a backstage area – and the Dutch town Hoofddorp.

In addition to spelling words correctly, Soma helped secure his victory with accurate definitions of a "troglodyte" (a primitive organism) and "sine qua non" – the Latin phrase for something considered essential.

Children have participated in US classroom, school, and regional spelling bees in hopes of making it to the national contest since 1925, according to Scripps National Spelling Bee.