(Reuters) - Snighda Nandipati, a 14-year-old eighth grader from San Diego, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday by correctly spelling "guetapens," a French word for ambush.

The second-place finisher was Stuti Mishra, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Orlando, Florida. Arvind Mahankali, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Bayside Hills, New York, repeated as third-place finisher for the second year in a row.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson)