The 2018 final
NPR reported the outcome on 1 June 2018. Karthik Nemmani, 14, of McKinney, Texas, took the title on 'koinonia', a Greek word for Christian fellowship. Naysa Modi, 12, of Prosper, Texas, a seventh-grader at Reynolds Middle School, finished runner-up after missing 'Bewusstseinslage'.
It was her fourth straight appearance at the national bee. Four consecutive qualifications before the age of thirteen is a serious record on its own: most spellers reach Washington once, and the field turns over almost completely each year. The winner's prize that year was $25,000 in cash, trips to New York and Hollywood, a pizza party for his classmates and a full Merriam-Webster reference library.
The wild card that changed the result
The detail that made the 2018 final a story rather than a result is where the champion came from. Nemmani had lost at the county level. He reached Washington through RSVBee, a new second-chance route Scripps had introduced that year, which admitted spellers who had not won their regional qualifier.
The research record for this page notes that Modi had beaten Nemmani at their county bee. The Associated Press headlined its 2018 dispatch on exactly that reversal - a Dallas duel in which a wild card turned the tables. The rule change also produced the largest field in the bee's history: 515 contestants, against 291 the year before.
What she said afterwards
Modi's own line to NPR was not about the loss. 'It's really, really scary, but at the same time, I feel really lucky that I get to go up there,' she said. Nemmani, for his part, said simply 'I got lucky', and acknowledged that he had not known eight or nine of the words in the closing rounds.
Both quotations describe the same thing from opposite ends: a final in which two children stood in front of a national television audience and spelled words that neither of them could be sure of. The bee is not a test of certainty. It is a test of what a child can reconstruct from roots, languages of origin and a definition read aloud under lights.
Why the 2018 bee mattered
The 515-speller field was the visible consequence of opening the door. It nearly doubled the competition in a single year and made the 2018 bee the largest ever staged at that point, a fact NPR put in its headline. It also meant the eventual champion was a speller the old rules would have kept at home.
For Modi the arithmetic was cruel and public. She had won the qualifier that mattered, gone to Washington for the fourth time, and lost the title to a speller who had not. Nothing in the reporting suggests she disputed any of it.
What is documented and what is not
Documented by NPR and the AP: her age of 12, her home town of Prosper, Texas, her school, her fourth consecutive national appearance, her runner-up finish, the word she missed, the winner and his winning word, the RSVBee route, the field of 515, the prize, and her own quotation.
Not documented here: her date of birth, her family, whether she returned to the bee, and anything about her life after June 2018. The county-bee result between her and Nemmani comes from the research record behind this page rather than from a direct quotation in the two cited reports. No IQ figure appears anywhere in this file, and spelling bees do not measure one.
Watch: Naysa Modi on camera
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naysa Modi | United States | Runner-up at the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee | Age 9 |
| Sophia Hoffman | United States | The 2014 Jackson County marathon spelling bee | Age 9 |
| Akshay Buddiga | United States | Fainting and recovering at the 2004 National Spelling Bee | Age 11 |
| Kush Sharma | United States | Winning the 2014 Jackson County marathon spelling bee | Age 13 |
| Finola Hackett | Canada | Runner-up at the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee | Age 14 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Runner-up at the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee, aged 12 (NPR, 1 June 2018)
- Missed 'Bewusstseinslage' in the final
- Fourth consecutive national appearance; seventh-grader at Reynolds Middle School, Prosper, Texas
- The 2018 field of 515 spellers was a record, nearly double the 291 of 2017
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- The county-bee result against Karthik Nemmani comes from the research record, not a direct quotation in the cited reports
- No date of birth is published in these sources
- Nothing here documents whether she competed again or what she has done since 2018
Questions people ask about Naysa Modi
How old is Naysa Modi?
NPR reported she was 12 at the 2018 national bee, which places her birth year around 2006. No date of birth appears in these sources.
What word did Naysa Modi miss?
'Bewusstseinslage', a German term NPR glossed as a state of consciousness devoid of sensory components.
Did Naysa Modi beat the 2018 champion before?
The research record for this page says she had beaten Karthik Nemmani at their county bee. He reached the national final through RSVBee, a new wild-card route for spellers who had not won their regional qualifier.
How many times did she compete nationally?
2018 was her fourth consecutive appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
How big was the 2018 spelling bee?
A record 515 contestants, against 291 the previous year, after the RSVBee rule opened a second-chance route.
Where is Naysa Modi now?
Nothing in the sources used here documents her life after June 2018, and this page does not invent an update.
Is Naysa Modi on Wikipedia?
No standalone English Wikipedia article for her is recorded here.
What is Naysa Modi's IQ?
No IQ figure for her appears in any source used for this page.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Naysa’s story?
Which word ended Naysa Modi's 2018 final?
How many spellers competed in 2018?
How did the 2018 champion qualify?
Sources
- National Spelling Bee Winner Out-Spells Record 515 Contestants — NPR, 2018-06-01
- Dallas duel: Wild card turns tables at National Spelling Bee — Associated Press, 2018-06-01
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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