WASHINGTON — An Indiana eighth-grader making his fourth and final attempt to be the nation's top speller reached his goal yesterday, winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Sameer Mishra's winning word was "guerdon," a noun meaning a reward.

The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries was all business when he aced "guerdon" to win the 81st version of the bee last night.

"I don't know about comedy lines, but my parents have been telling me since the beginning that I should always stay calm, cool and collected," Sameer said.

Sameer, a top 20 finisher the last two years, clenched both fists and put his hands to his face after spelling the winning word. He won a tense duel over first-time participant Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who stumbled on "prosopo-poeia," a word describing a type of figure of speech.

For placing first, Sameer will receive $35,000 in cash plus more than $5,000 in other prizes.

Hawai'i's spelling champ, Talmage Nakamoto, was among the 198 spellers knocked out of the competition Thursday based on their combined scores from a computer test and an oral round. Talmage, 13, is a seventh-grader at Konawaena Middle School in Kealakekua and was sponsored by The Honolulu Advertiser.