Caroline Glenn

FLORIDA TODAY

The word is anaphylaxis.

It's the last word standing between 12-year-old Dhyana Mishra and the first-place trophy at the Brevard County Spelling Bee, after more than four hours of competitive spelling. She survived "waterzooi," "sobriquet" and "falciform" — words that most adults can't define, let alone spell.

Her impressive spelling skills have landed her in a sudden-death round against Edgewood Jr./Sr. High's Kelly Berkowitz, also 12 years old. For the past 10 minutes, they've been going back and forth, taking a crack at some of the most difficult words the dictionary has to offer.

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Mishra starts with the word's language of origin: Greek. "Different languages have different rules to help you spell it," she explains. For example, the "sh" sound in German is usually spelled S-C-H.

Then she wants to know its definition: hypersensitivity resulting from sensitization following prior contact with the causative agent.

Next, she asks the moderator to use the word in a sentence and tell her the part of speech: It's a noun.

She also has him repeat the word one more time, just for good measure.

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Through all 26 rounds of Wednesday's Spelling Bee, she follows the same formula. She says it "helps you piece the word together, like a puzzle."

Then, on an imaginary keyboard, she pecks the corresponding keys as she spells the word aloud. "A-N-A-P-H-Y-L-A-X-I-S."

And with that, she'll move onto the Regional Spelling Bee on March 22, along with runner-up Berkowitz.

The sixth-grader from West Melbourne School for Science studies year-round for the competition, devouring online dictionaries, researching spelling tips, and studying prefixes and suffixes.

Last year, she found herself at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., after clinching second place at the Brevard Bee. Following in the footsteps of her sister, Stuti, who placed second in the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Mishra started chipping away at the 400-word list when she was only 6 years old.

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"I was quite surprised," moderator Dan Parravano said of Mishra and Berkowitz's performance, "because it was quite difficult to even pronounce them."

Just to pronounce all 201 words, Parravano studied for about six hours.

Of the 83 students who competed Wednesday, each one had a different spelling technique.

Some, like Mishra, would ask lots of questions about the word before they spelled it, slowly, allowing a second between each letter. Others would dive right in.

Many, like Berkowitz, would pretend to draw the word on the palm of their hand, finding the correct letters like they would while taking a spelling test.

And, when all else failed, Mishra would resort to an old trick everyone knows: Sound it out.

Contact Caroline Glenn at caglenn@floridatoday.com or 321-576-5933, and follow her on Twitter @bycarolineglenn and like "Education at Florida Today" on Facebook.