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These are the 2 words that the co-champions of this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee got right

May 27, 2016, 20:34 IST

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Nihar Saireddy Janga celebrates after spelling a word correctly at the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee.AP Photo/Cliff Owen

The 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee is being described as the toughest one yet. Scripps attempted to up the intensity of the competition to force a single winner to emerge from the competitions.

But for the third year in a row, the bee ended in a tie, with Nihar Saireddy Janga, 11, and Jairam Jagadeesh Hathwar, 13, finishing as co-champions.

To come home with a trophy, however, both students had to correctly spell unusual foreign words.

Janga's winning word was gesellschaft, pronounced guh-zel-shahft. It's a singular noun of German origin that means "an association of individuals for common goals, as for entertainment, intellectual, or cultural purposes or for business reasons."

And Hathwar's winning word was Feldenkrais, pronounced fel-den-krise and named after Russian-born engineer Moshe Feldenkrais. It refers to a system of body movements that promotes flexibility and self-awareness, often used in education. 

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"I'm just speechless. I can't say anything," Janga said after winning, according to the Associated Press. "I mean, I'm only in fifth grade!"

Janga, at 11, is now the youngest participant to ever win, and Hathwar is the younger brother of 2014 co-champion Sriram Hathwar.

The Scripps Spelling Bee allows kids aged 9 to 15 to compete in the annual event that takes place right outside Washington, D.C.

Some of the other difficult words in the competition were groenedael, Hohenzollern, and euchologion.

The bee, as usual, didn't disappoint on the entertainment front. Competitors personalities shined through, and the internet loved some of their reactions, especially Janga's.

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Cowboy's wide receiver's Dez Bryant even caught wind of the spelling bee after Janga threw an "X" motion in the air, mimicing Bryant's football celebrations.

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