Anamika Veeramani, 14 from North Royalton, Ohio, wins the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee

Anamika Veeramani, a 14-year-old speller from North Royalton, Ohio, won the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee Friday night.

Anamika was named the Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion in the ninth round after correctly spelling the word "stromuhr," which is defined as "an instrument for measuring the flow of viscous substances designed to measure the amount and speed of blood flow through an artery."

Anamika represented The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, in this year’s competition. She is an eighth grade student at Incarnate Word Academy in Parma Heights, Ohio.

This was the second consecutive Scripps National Spelling Bee in which Anamika competed. She tied for fifth place in last year’s Bee.

The championship rounds of this year’s Bee were broadcast live on the ABC Television Network.

The spelling competition began Wednesday with 273 competitors who qualified to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee by winning locally sponsored bees in their home communities.

Rich Boehne, president and chief executive officer of The E. W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP), declared Anamika the national champion and awarded her the engraved Scripps National

Spelling Bee Championship loving cup immediately after the winning word was correctly spelled.

"Congratulations to Anamika, who triumphed over some of the most challenging words in the English language to emerge as the 2010 national champion," Boehne said.  "It’s an honor to sponsor the Scripps National Spelling Bee and to be associated with these future leaders. We congratulate the 273 champions who mesmerized fans worldwide this week with their impressive command of spelling and language."

With 11 million spellers starting at the local level, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational program. The competition is administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company, based inCincinnati, and 268 local sponsors. The majority of local spelling bee sponsors are daily and weekly newspapers.

The competition was held in the Independence Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Washington.

Tied for second in this year’s competition were: Shantanu Srivatsa of West Fargo, N.D. (representing the North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders), Elizabeth Platz of Shelbina, Mo. (representing the Columbia Daily Tribune), and Adrian Gunawan ofArlington Heights, Ill. (representing Commonwealth Edison).